SOON to rise is a Thomasian Village built by hard work and good heart in Bulacan.
A busload of students and faculty members from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, instead of resting on their weekend, didn’t mind getting their shirts soiled with paint and sweat in a housing mission at a steep relocation site in Bulacan.
The Faculty’s campaign in Tower Village, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan last Feb.12 provided shelter for the families that the Couples for Christ (CFC) Gawad Kalinga housing project relocated from squatter’s areas in Manila.
Spearheaded by Dr. Oscar Tagulinao, a CFC officer, two houses had their finishing touches along with seven houses already erected in Thomasian Ville, a housing project that the Faculty started two years ago.
A subdivision of the Tower Village, Thomasian Ville is the third school-adopted village of the Gawad Kalinga, along with the Ateneo Blue Eagles and La Salle Green Archers villages.
“The housing project of the Faculty encourages the students to contribute to community development and nation building,” Tagulinao told the Varsitarian.
Aside from the housing project, the students launched Gawad Kalusugan, a medical campaign aimed to promote family health.
“We teach people how to take care of their own health and how to minimize the prevalence of diseases through preventive community medicine,” Tagulinao said.
Together with donations from UST alumni doctors, student organizations of the Faculty help in financing the houses. The Terpsichorean and the Asian Medical Students Association organized a dance concert and a fashion show before the activity.
Tagulinao says that the medical mission-housing tie-up was first conceptualized two years ago when the medical students started to go to different communities for their literacy training service.
“I saw the opportunity to focus on a particular community, a project where we can focus on one place and see if we can change the health profile in that area,” Tagulinao told the Varsitarian.
Aside from this goal, Tagulinao wants the project to work as a collaborative effort with volunteer student organizations, including fraternities and sororities.
“The project provides students better exposure to the reality of Philippine society, encouraging them to reach out to the poor,” Tagulinao said.
So far, support for the housing project and medical mission continuously pour in. Last month, the UST Medicine Alumni Association in America pledged to finance 30 houses while students from the College of Nursing are starting to get involved in the health program.
With plans of returning to Tower Village at least once a month, the Faculty is determined to assess and monitor the health of the families on a regular basis. Tagulinao invites other colleges and faculties to help in the project.
“We hope that pretty soon the entire University will see that this is something we all can do,” he said, adding that the success of the Thomasian Ville is something all Thomasians can be proud of.
