By Rey Anthony H. Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb. 20
(PIA)-- Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto urged volunteers to participate in a five-day
showcase of love of country and bayanihan spirit in Bayani Challenge 2013 on
March 23 to 27 in the towns of Antequerra and Talibon.
Chatto in his weekly 'Kita ug ang Gobernador' told Boholanos to join this
opportunity to help build communities here.
Under the Bayani Challenge event, volunteers are engaged into building homes,
repairing schools, participating in health missions, joining in climate change
mitigation activities and other activities that render patriotic services or
duty, the governor said.
The activity, a simultaneous event in 34 provinces in the country organized
under the Pilipinas Natin, is set to rally the most number of volunteers to
Challenge the Impossible as it dares to stage the biggest volunteerism event,
said Undersecretary Jose Mari Oquiñena.
Oquiñena is Undersecretary for Special Concerns of the Presidential
Communications Operations Office and concurrently Director General of the
Philippine Information Agency.
On the said dates, volunteers will troop to 42 Bayani Challenge sites in the
provinces all over the country, including Bantolinao in Antequera and another
site in Magsaysay,Talibon in Bohol.
More than an event, the Bayani Challenge is also a test of endurance and love
of country as every year, more and more volunteers and nation-builders respond
to the Bayani Challenge, according to PilipinasNation.org.
The Bayani Challenge started in 2006 with 400 volunteers in St. Bernard,
Southern Leyte, which has pooled thousands of volunteers and helped build more
than 500 houses, the organization website showed.
Antequerra information Officer Russel Eustacio Villas said the target is to
build five duplex houses to benefit 10 families in Barangay Bantolinao.
At the monthly meeting of public information officers here, Villas said the
town officials have been coordinating with the preparations and laying the
groundwork in the site, the campsite and assembling support system for the
volunteers.
Interested volunteers in Bohol can form a team of 15 members or join
individually. Registrations can be done online: at
http://bayanichallenge2013.blogspot.com and choose the site you want to
volunteer.
Registering means filling up the Bayani Challenge Forms while providing the
name of team for groups or individuals for single volunteers, team leader,
contact number, email address, current location and your chosen volunteer site
location, then submit forms, according to Usec. Oquiñena.
Volunteers also need to bring food for the duration of the event, cooking and
eating utensils and sleeping needs, first aid kits, flashlights, documentation
equipment like cameras and videos, and construction tools, this is said.
Team volunteers are also advised to bring the must-tools that include pick
mattock, crowbar, shovels, masonry palettes, masonry wooden floats for
finishing works, finishing trowel, mixing pails, gardening tools, hammers,
saws, hacksaw balde, Phillips screw drivers, electrical pliers, steel meter
tapes, individual hand gloves, hard hats, paint rollers, brush and tray and
leveling hose or bar. (FCR/RAHC/PIA Bohol)