A community leader shares her experiences working in TAO-Pilipinas

by Marginela Brucelo

When our house in Letre, Malabon was demolished, my whole family relocated to Tanza, Navotas where we became part of an organization called SANAGMANA (Federation of the United Urban Poor of Navotas). Eventually, I became one of the community leaders of SANAGMANA and headed the technical committee where I had the chance to meet TAO-Pilipinas. TAO-Pilipinas was one of the principal stakeholders of our organization. They have been providing assistance to our community such as designing the appropriate house for us, community planning, and land surveying. They also conducted workshops about solid waste management (SWM), livelihood training program on micro concrete roof (MCR) tiles, and provided relief goods when our community was devastated by a strong typhoon.

When troubled started in the organization due to the mismanagement of our president, I resigned as one of the community leaders and because I attended seminars about SWM, I was lucky enough to be tapped by TAO-Pilipinas to become a probationary trainor on solid waste management under the Education and Training Program of TAO-Pilipinas.

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A TAO researcher discovers what’s important in development work

by Gwen Lucero

“When you have learned to take care of yourself and your relationships, it will be easier to understand and to work for the development of other people’s lives not according to your standards but according to the people’s standards even if sometimes these contradict each other and complicate matters.”

Development work. What does it mean? Who are the people we call development workers? What do they do? These are some questions I’ve been asking myself.

Time and again, I have been drawn to reach out to those who are less fortunate than I am not only economically but also in other aspects. Although my life is far from perfect, I consider myself very blessed to have all I need to be happy. I have my family who complicates my otherwise boring life. I have my friends who I have known from preschool to the present who stimulate me intellectually or help me to be emotionally and socially grounded. I have been blessed with the gift of faith in a Higher Being who I rely on when nothing seems to make sense. The gratitude I feel for all these blessings does not allow me to remain unaffected by all the pain I see around me. And so I help others to lessen if not remove the ache I feel inside.
The way I see it, development work should first look into the individual, the development worker. It’s best to understand your motives and to recognize that what you want for yourself may not be what others want for themselves. Thus development work is not about what you want for others but what others want for themselves or their loved ones. On the other hand, respect for other people’s beliefs and way of life should not stop you from having discussions or arguments since these are also necessary to better understand yourself, others, and the system that binds you together. The study I did with TAO-Pilipinas on the lessons learned by different communities in their struggle for security of land tenure provided new insights that direct me in the career I’ve taken, grown to love and still trying to understand.

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A TAO staff member learns how other countries are solving their housing problems

by Beryl F. Baybay

“The solutions and successes taking place in Sweden and Tanzania began with small ideas, small changes and small actions.”

The world, the potpourri of cultures, pursuits and beliefs, has but a common aspiration – quality of life. I realized this when I was given the opportunity to participate in the Shelter Design and Development (SDD) Advanced International Training course held in Lund, Sweden in April 2008 and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in September 2008, through the sponsorship of SIDA. The five-phase short course also involved quick visits to Copenhagen, Denmark and Zanzibar. I was able to interact with 23 other housing professionals from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The two phases of the course in Sweden and in Tanzania were certainly no tourist trips. Lectures, workshops, paper work, and study visits to housing sites filled the schedule. But this gave the participants the advantage of gaining more than superficial knowledge of the two countries in a short time. The Swedish SDD tutors, who are involved in socialized human settlements studies and work globally, wanted to develop our sensitivity towards the poor and to influence us to consciously integrate sustainable plans and designs in developing socialized communities and low-cost housing units. The course conveyed that even the poor can be provided with decent, liveable and innovative shelter.

Most of the principles of sustainability and participatory processes in housing development taught in the course weren’t new to me because we have been applying them at work in TAO-Pilipinas. Nevertheless, the SDD course became a rich source of international experiences and a good training ground for honing interpersonal skills.

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