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An old couple living in a remote barangay in Catmon town relying mainly on the meager earnings of their daughter became the latest champion of the Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI-DACF) for its early child care development initiatives.

In December 2015, Elesio and Adelia Arenilla, ages 74 and 69 respectively, of Sitio Manlayag, Barangay Panalipan, partnered with RAFI-DACF by donating their lot for the latter’s Child Development Center and Playground Facility Construction Project.

After conducting a site validation, the RAFI-DACF engineer found out that the child development center of Sitio Manlayag was dilapidated and needed repair. One of the requirements RAFI-DACF needed from the partner local government unit (LGU) was a 150-square-meter titled lot where the day care center will be constructed. In partnerships of the same kind, the LGU provides the lot for the facility.

The generous couple, Elesio and Adelia, are both unemployed and dependent mainly on the earning of their only daughter Eledilma who receives a monthly honorarium of about P2,000.

When asked why he chose to donate his lot for the child development center, Elesio said, “Daghan man gud bata  ang makabenepisyo sa proyekto.  Kining mga bataa mura naman pud gud ug mga apo nako, mao nga ganahan pa gyud ko mutabang kung unsa pa akong mahimo para sa komunidad (Many children from different generations will benefit from the project. The children from these community are just like my own grandchildren that is why I am very much willing to provide what I have for the children in our community)”. There are 22 children with ages 3 and 4 who are enrolled in the center.

When the center was turned over last June 2016, the LGU of Catmon recognized the Arenillas for their generosity and support in the cause of early childhood education. The couple, in turn, said that they are happy that the community now has a new and a quality child development center.  They also encouraged other Catmon constituents and those from other LGUs to also donate lots for the construction of child development centers and support initiatives for the Early Childhood Care and Development Program.

Aside from donating the lot for the child development center, the Arenillas also donated a lot to the Japan International Cooperation Inc. for the construction of a building for a weaving project and another lot to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for its beneficiaries’ gardening project.

The Arenillas are a true testament that financial capacity is not the only measure for you to give back to your community. There will always be other means by which constituents can support initiatives for the welfare of the children in the community.

The Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation (RAFI-DACF) aims to improve Early Childhood Care and Development condition at the grassroots level by providing capabilities to the Local Government Units to effectively track children’s development and by constructing quality early learning centers. Its Grants Program also supports initiatives promoting the welfare and development of children in all ages.