Redefine Ateneo's Social Involvement

(c) Apple Thea

“Go forth and set the world on fire.”  San Ignacio

I still remember the time when I, together with other student leaders, would really have to exert effort (to shout) 

to point out our opinion in redefining 

Ateneo's community involvement.

For the past years, I've been engaging myself to different outreach activities - most of the time feeling good

because I thought I did something great for my country already. I would even organize the same

and encourage students to participate so that they too could feel the "high" in helping others.

All my thoughts on redefining Ateneo's community involvement were kept until last night. 

ANO BA TALAGA ANG GUSTO NATING MANGYARI?

Are we really changing lives?

Are we really making a difference?

Are we really ending poverty?

I believe this is the right time to take the challenge. 

In Ateneo de Naga, we have 4 adopted barangays.

 Are we evaluating our programs there? What are our tools so that we could 

quantify and qualify the impact of our programs to the lives of people in our adopted barangays?

We always look for tangible improvements.

I guess, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ really got my attention in his speech "Depth, Universality and Learned Ministry: Challenges to Jesuit Higher Education Today". 

 Fr. Nicolas challenges us to really think out of the box, to use our imagination. According to him, “People lose the ability to engage with reality; that is a process of dehumanization that may be gradual and silent, but very real.” I guess, this is very much true with the current social involvement programs of Ateneo. 

We limit ourselves to immersion programs that really don't make any significant difference in the lives of people in the barangay. To feeding programs that only satisfy their hungry stomach for a day. 

What they need are sustainable and holistic programs.

Suggestions:

College of Nursing

1. Quality community health teaching and basic life support training to 

volunteer health workers in the barangay.

College of Education

2. Training of volunteer teachers to the bario/ volunteer-friendly manuals containing

different activities which could be facilitated by volunteers in the barangays. 

College of Engineering

3. Eco-friendly infrastructures (toilet bowls, alternative lighting source, etc). 

College of Arts and Sciences

4. Holistic spiritual, psychological, socio-political formation programs for the beneficiaries of our

 adopted barangay.

College of Computer Studies

5. Information Technology training. Web development to help market the livelihood of the adopted barangay.

College of Business and Accountancy

6. Social Entrepreneurship. Combined initiative from Accountancy,
Legal Management, Marketing, etc.

Let's design our outreach activities depending on the expertise of teachers and students. In this way, we could give quality 

and holistic programs to our adopted barangays. Now, we have 

programs for Infrastructure, Health, Education,

Formation activities and Livelihood. These are some of the vital

ingredients to build a community.

Difficult? Yes! But that is really part of our work

in alleviating poverty in Bicol. 

“Depth of thought and imagination in the Ignatian tradition involves a profound engagement with the real.” 

I'm not saying that what we are doing now is useless, I just want to remind everyone that Ateneo could offer more, could be more. Di ba? Magis nga!