I Run For GK ERH
August 6, 2015.
Good Day everyone!
I’m John Fisalbon, team leader of a five-member French batch and here is our experience.
Our team comes from the same school: ISC Paris Business School and belongs to the same
organisation: Aide Mondiale (meaning Global Aid), both located in Paris, in France. Our partnership
with Gawad Kalinga allows us an internship in a Gawad Kalinga site in order to immerse with the
community and live a GK experience. That’s why we stayed in GK ERH Village, in Bacolod City, in
Negros Occidental during almost 4 months. Our aim was to support a developing project, and it
appeared that the farm was the best way to reach this target. Indeed, by improving the farm, we
could provide a sustainable livelihood that the ERH residents needed. And in line with our
organisation goal: supporting childhood everywhere in the world, the ERH families will then advocate
education by sending their children to school thanks to their new incomes.
However, we needed funds to start the project. Therefore, we decided to organise a Run for a cause
in order to raise funds for the farm. It was two months of hard work and perseverance. An event like
this has so many threats: people disinterest, administrative or financial obstacles, surprising weather
of the Filipino rainy season, etc. On June 30, we started an estimated budget with an estimated
90 000 pesos of net profit, the race was named: I Run for GK ERH and was planned to happen on
August 1, 2015. We divided the tasks in four committees: Eléonore was in charge of the logistics,
Laïka of the program, Anaïs of the marketing, Julie of the finance and I was the event head.
I run for GK ERH was a 3.4 kilometres race focused on students, families and employees, it started
from Manville Royale subdivision to GK ERH Village, Brgy. Sum-ag, in Bacolod City on August 1,
2015.
The first month was focused on sending sponsorship or invitation letters for schools, companies or
governmental organisations. But we had to give these letters personally; we then became familiar
with the jeepnees of Bacolod, always saying “Lugar” or “Bayad”. We were also during this time
planning about all the stuff that we needed for the event and the activities that we will offer.
Inspired by the Bayani Challenges of Gawad Kalinga, we decided to add a paint party and a
ceremonial planting of trees after the race.
The second month was mainly consisting on following up the sponsors, making orientations and
also pre-registrations in schools or companies to make them aware of our serious project. We have
contacted more than 50 companies (including governmental organisations) and 16 colleges of
Bacolod. We had for example making our presentation in front of 2, 000 students in a basket-ball
court or doing pre-registration in a BPO company from 10PM to 6AM to attract most of their
nightshift workers.
Two days before the race, we were that excited and in the meantime that stressed, that we didn’t
sleep. With the help of our GK Village, we gathered all the stuff required in the GK Village: paint,
trees, water, stage, tarpaulins … Furthermore, we all prayed (believer or not, organisers or runners,
villagers or donators) the day before the race, not to rain during the event because the road which
leads to our village is like a rocky and muddy one. Heavens were with us, it didn’t rain.
The D-Day: Saturday August 1, we had already 1,000 runners registered thanks to the preregistration, but it seemed that our communication was well done, so we had 300 registered just
during the onsite registration at 5AM! The gun start was at 5:30 AM, when our emcee launched the
countdown; we saw a never-ending people tide running for our cause. The start was so impressive:
policemen and traffic management unit were deployed around the thousand runners to lead them
during the race, medics with ambulances were also following, marshals and ERH Villagers were
positioned all along the race route in order to secure and give water to this gigantic crowd. We then
arrived all inside the village where the program was. People were going to the ceremonial planting of
trees, others were having fun by being washed by the fire trucks called for the paint party, and others
were just enjoying the fact to be in the GK Village, taking picture with the community or just living
this big moment of share.
The results were really better than what we planned: 1,301 runners registered and 125k of net
profit. At the beginning, we had nothing; we were using our own money to pay the race expenses,
now we have much more than enough to develop the farm. We also reached our second target:
giving exposure to the GK Village which wants to implement a social tourism business. The place had
to be known, so what better way to bring more than a thousand people inside the village.
We are really grateful to all the people (runners, donators, sponsors, GK Provincial Team, ERH
families …), who had helped us for I Run for GK ERH and above all believed us from the beginning.
Today, it’s the last day that we are here in GK ERH Village; we will never forget what we experienced.
We are also hoping that maybe another batch of volunteers could set up a second edition of I Run for
GK ERH and of course, making better that what we’ve done. Our endeavour to end poverty is not
over.
John Fisalbon
Team Aide Mondiale, Bacolod City