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graduate, his willingness to serve pushed him to
enhance his knowledge and skills in community
work.
JOSEL’S FIRST STEPS AS A LEADER
When Kalahi-CIDSS was first introduced in
Villaviciosa, Abra in 2014, Josel admitted that
he was reluctant in joining the committee of
volunteers. But through the encouragement of his
community and after much reflection, he decided
to take the challenge.
He joined as a participatory situational analysis
volunteer and was eventually chosen as the BSPMC
Chairperson at the age of 22.
Since then he diligently learned the processes
and purposes of Kalahi-CIDSS. Learning about it
was “tough and was a real challenge,” he said.
“There were a lot of things to learn and there
were times that I thought I could not do it,” he
narrated in vernacular. But the kind words and
encouragement from his people gave him strength
to push himself to the maximum and learn.
“It was a gradual process before I learned what
Kalahi-CIDSS is trying to achieve,” he continued.
Josel started to understand the purpose of Kalahi-
CIDSS after attending capacity building activities
organized by the DSWD with the local government
of Villaviciosa.
As a volunteer of Kalahi-CIDSS, Josel had seen
and heard people complaining on the slow and
long processes of the program. “At first, we were
impatient on how things are being done but as
we continued, I understood that the meetings
or consultations is important in making our
decisions,” he added.
“Explaining to our fellow residents became
our nonstop job as a volunteer,” he continued.
Young as he is, he acknowledges that learning and
understanding community-driven development
would take a long time to accept and practice by
heart.
Many from the community still fail to
understand the need to have volunteers. “During
the second cycle, nobody wants to volunteer
anymore because it seemed like all of us were
caught up in our daily life trying to work for our
families,” he explained.
Josel said that they experienced birth pains
during the first cycle of the program as gathering
at least 80% of household population became the
real challenge. “However, when we were prioritized
during the second cycle, we were relieved and
reenergized,” he said with delight.
“With my community in high spirits. I witnessed
how bayanihan helped strengthen and developed
our community,” he added.
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