i grow up in a community where roofs and walls are made up of strong materials, where people are busy earning a living, where money has never been an issue and foods are overflowing, where all you have to do is to study your lesson, play and have fun all day and no matter if your place was regularly battered by storms, the destructive forces of typhoon are nothing but a part of history and worst is that you and your brother are overjoyed because in the morning you get your fair share of canned sardines and that's the only time you can ever eat them.
i have always lived this kind of life, caring for the environment has never been my first priority and i admit that i cant even segregate my own garbage, how much more to the universe and what do you expect from a punk like me? until one day i found myself inside the DRR Team. reading success stories, listening to drr champions, found myself planting trees in the mountain and mangrove propagules on the sea, visiting depressed communities, witness how they struggle against the different faces of poverty, eat with them, hear their stories and i shared mine then suddenly i realized how pity i was for living that way, always staying inside my comfort zone. so naive about what's happening in the real world. i dont know what motivates me to transform maybe i was touched by those drr videos or was just touched by the reality i had glimpse during those times i was inside a makeshift dilapidated abode and it just came and i learn to understand it and my eyes get open and i change gradually.
i told myself its time to change. its time to care. its time to open my mind, its time to live the way i should live and its payback time for those wrong inconsequential stuff i committed. i signed as community facilitator, trained for high angle and life support rescue, read more success stories, research more, participated in all forms of capability building training's and imparted all my learning's to my family, joined in all clean-up drives, give talks during information education campaign and convince them to reform their historical and inherited way of living and beg them to participate in any DRR event, i have learned to segregate, planted more trees and now how i love too see them growing, i teach my young kin's to plant more flowers and paint the walls lively, bought them a whistle and enrolled them in swimming more importantly is that i learned to share with what i have.
i see how my community change, more did i see myself changing and even that of our local officers from the government i was in, They are committed, effective and accountable DRR planners and implementors shifting from being reactive to proactive and making sure that drr are mainstreamed in every program and projects they have. making sure that the community no matter how complex or un-united have strengthened their capacities.
ako si killua, blogger
#icommittodrr
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