The first Nayong Tsinoy was built through the pooled donations of various organizations and individuals.

Margarita Madarang, wife of Pedro Madarang of the Cantonese Association, skipped birthday celebrations for two consecutive years and donated two houses to GK.

The Badminton Amity Club, through the initiative of Kaisa founding member Leo Ang, decided to forego their Christmas party and also donated two houses.

Some, like Teresita So of Angeles City, asked around to find the Kaisa office to donate. She learned about the project through a local Chinese newspaper. She also organized a tour to Baseco for her Angeles friends and asked them to also support the project.

The second Nayong Tsinoy village and the third, the Oishi Village, were donated by Ambassador John K.C. Ng, presidential envoy for Chinese affairs, and Carlos Chan, respectively. It was Ambassador Ng, through his initial donation of 25 houses, who encouraged Kaisa to join GK as partner.

Young members provided the spurt of energy and enthusiasm that only the youth can bring. The gloomy sky proved no match to their sunny disposition. By just being there and helping out, they inspired other Kaisa members to carry on, seeing in them the continuity of the work and vision of the organization.

The bad weather should have been a damper but not for Go Bon Juan. Drenched with sweat, paint and drizzly rain, he refused repeated offers of a fresh shirt and continued painting away.

Not for Sheallene Yeo either, who had the flu but nonetheless participated and spearheaded the distribution of Oishi crackers to the kids of Baseco.

The line was long, but the children were orderly and behaved, thanks in part to the resident volunteers who helped out. The heroic spirit is really innate and alive.

The masonry works–laying bricks and mixing sand, gravel and cement at the Nayong Tsinoy 2 and the Oishi Village–beckoned. But this time, the rain proved to be a good excuse as any work done would have been ruined.

Joaquin Sy, Kaisa past president, was supposed to stand as sponsor at a baptismal but was at Baseco instead. He asked his son to proxy for him. Good thing, too, because Caroline Howard of the ABS–CBN News Channel did a spot interview with him, and he was able to parley Kaisa and the Chinese–Filipino community´s involvement with this project in particular and nation building in general.

Andrew Arriola also had numerous activities and invitations lined up for the day, but gave some up to participate in this project. He even brought along two big Styrofoam boxes of pancit to share with the residents and beneficiaries of Nayong Tsinoy. Too bad, some of us were either too shy or too tired to mingle and grab some of the pancit. I´m sure it was delicious.

A short program was held to mark the ceremonial turnover of houses to the grateful, even tearful beneficiaries. The ceremonial key was handed with another hopeful reminder to the owners to take care of the houses. From the reception, it was evident that they will.

Under the project, the beneficiaries have to be original residents of Baseco. Their names must appear in the census list conducted years before the big fires that hit the area. To get into the list of potential homeowners, they must volunteer and invest "sweat" equity, which they can earn by helping build the houses.

They are also required to undergo values formation seminars and livelihood training. This way, the resulting community will have experienced the bayanihan spirit and be equipped to manage and sustain their own community after GK´s caretaker team leaves the site.

Tony Meloto, executive director of Gawad Kalinga, gave a short speech where he expressed his gratitude to Kaisa and the Chinese Filipinos for being a real partner in GK 777´s vision.

Kaisa was invited to the Baseco site to join hands in building relationships, rebuilding homes and restoring dignity by transforming slums into peaceful and productive communities. The gains the organization accomplished on Nov. 29 may not be apparent when viewed in the light of the mammoth problems of poverty and endless disasters and setbacks besetting our poor country. But it sure beats whining and doing nothing.