Farmer’s wife helps village get ‘footbridge in the sky’

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Filomena “Lumen” Morte, 43, of Barangay Baslay in Dauin, Negros Oriental, once longed for the day when school children would no longer need to cross the treacherous Masanglot River just to attend their classes. 

Aside from taking care of her two children, Morte is a community volunteer of the government-initiated Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) National Community-Driven Development Program.

Morte’s family does not earn much as they only rely on farming as their livelihood. In fact, she is a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilya Program of the government.

But even she experiences hardship, she still manages to think about helping the community in her own little way by volunteering and leading a group of fellow volunteers in their village.

She said that school children in their village are often absent from classes when there is a heavy downpour because the Masanglot River swells, becoming dangerous to cross over.

“Akong gilantaw diha nga lisod ang pagtabok padulong eskwelahan. Ako gipangitaan ug paagi nga makatabok kay sige sila ug maka absent. Lisod kaayo ang mga bata nga magsige ug absent kay wala na silay makatunan,” she said.

(I saw how difficult it is for the children in our community to cross the river just to get to school. So I thought that there needs to be done as the children will no longer learn anything if they miss classes.)

The school children need to climb down a 17-story cliff to cross a river and then climb up again to reach the public elementary school.

With her persistence, a P2.1 million footbridge dubbed as “footbridge in the sky” was built in their upland barangay.

There are at least 26 households in their upland barangay that were helped by the footbridge project, which was realized due to the efforts of Morte and her group of volunteers.

Due to her work, on Friday, February 27, Morte was in Cebu City, where she was was among the “Salamat Po” awardees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

During the awarding ceremonies at the Cebu capitol in Cebu City, Morte was in tears while accepting the plaque and trophy that recognized her efforts in helping the community.

As a message to those who wanted to volunteer community service, she told Rappler: “Dili lamang sa atong kaugalingon lang ta maghuna huna kung dili ato pud nga i-share ang atong kahibalo ug bisag gamayng panahon para sa atong mga kumonidad nga sama natong mga kabus.”

(We should stop thinking about ourselves only and start sharing what we know and our little time for our impoverished communities.) – Rappler.com