TACLOBAN CITY—A successful rehabilitation of a dying watershed in Leyte destroyed by Supertyphoon Yolanda was featured as one of the 24 “Change Projects”, or transformational stories of humanitarian development, from across the country launched by the Catholic Church last Friday.
Divided into four conversations, the change projects were presented by the fellows of the Lead to Heal program by the Catholic Church’s social-action arm, the National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa)/Caritas Philippines together with the Development Academy of the Philippines and Future by Design Pilipinas.
“These change projects hope to bring the whole community together with other stakeholders, such as the Church, government and private institutions towards a shared vision of sustainable development and resiliency,” Nassa/Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary Fr. Edwin Gariguez said.
Also featured in the change projects were the stories of the drug surrenderees in Albay, the disaster vulnerability of the Madaloy Indigenous tribe in Aklan and the health issues of an Ayta community in Iloilo.
“Lead to Heal was conceptualized in 2015 out of the real need of the dioceses, particularly the directors, who, at that time, were faced with the immensity of the task in the Supertyphoon Yolanda rehabilitation,” Gariguez added.
Lead to Heal is a 14-month transformational leadership program aimed at strengthening the leadership and social-innovation skills of the diocesan social-action directors, personnel and staff of Nassa/Caritas Philippines through four leadership modules, which include public narrative of the leadership journey and change projects at the end of the program.
Funded by Caritas Belgium and Caritas Española, it is a shared commitment toward community resilience in accompanying and partnering with Diocesan Social Action Centers, and Relief and Rehabilitation Units of dioceses nationwide.
Nassa/Caritas Philippines is the humanitarian, development and advocacy arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines that is working directly with the social-action centers of the 85 dioceses all over the country.