The Path to Doing Good is the Hardest

I was bored.

My first volunteer experience started with my restlessness from the humdrum of my daily school life in College. I wanted to add meaning and depth to my routine experiences as a student. I wanted to do something meaningful with my time than to watch movies and series all day, or just to spend a whole Saturday playing video games.

So I decided to join an organization  in school where I taught Math to grade 4 public school students who do not even know how to add nor subtract and yet they were already in that grade. From this experience, I got to know the students better, both their joys and struggles in life. Some of them miss school because they don't have the money for "baon". Some of them don't have electricity at home, so they don't have the resources needed for them to study and do their homework at night. They have their own unique stories of challenges to tell, but one thing is common for all of them: they wanted to finish school because they wanted to be the ones to make their families’ lives better.

They wanted to be the “hope” and “miracle” that their family needed to get the most out of life.

After that first Saturday of teaching, I vowed to offer my time and talent to anyone who was in need – hoping that I may be able to help them get a step closer to whatever dream their hoping for in their lives.

Since then, I became an advocate for education and the poor. I joined various volunteer groups such as Youth For Christ, and Alay Ni Ignacio, and Gawad Kalinga. From the boring extra time that I had, every single day became extremely busy – but they were the most fulfilling times in my life. I met more and more people who are extremely passionate with helping the country develop. I was eventually surrounded by like-minded and inspiring individuals who were determined to fight for this movement of change. I was in a trance – I was eaten up by the fire of the people who surrounded me, which eventually led to volunteerism and service becoming a huge part of my life.

For more than 7 years of volunteering, I have learned so much. Most of the time I got frustrated, because it seems that the work never seems to get done. In as much as a lot of people are passionate, and millions give time to volunteer when they can, it seems that it is never enough. My frustration led me to look and think of other lingering ways to have impact to society at its core.

This was when I got to know more about CSR. Getting into CSR showed me that the help that we ought to be doing should be sustainable. Sustainability does not only entail viability and eco-friendly initiatives. Sustainability can also be achieved through the continued commitment and empowerment of all the people involved in the process. I realized that in order to help this country, it needs more and more individuals who are committed to helping not only because it’s convenient and it looks good on their resume or their Facebook Page, but because it’s a commitment they want to pursue with all aspects of their life included. Most people fail to realize that the problem that we are trying to solve here is too serious and too important, that we need to dedicate our lives to it. It’s not a one-time-only-when-I’m-free-or-when-I-have-lots-of-money-to-give sort of thing. There has to be continuity. In effect, it’s a never-ending deliberate choice to do good and be good in any shape or form. It has to be included in your DNA. Only then can you have bigger impact. I find that the new and localized definition of CSR – Citizenship, Sustainability, and Social Responsibility encapsulates this idea that most people tend to forget.

From my experience in volunteering, I have now dedicated my life to CSR, and its application through Social Entrepreneurship as the Program Officer of the Institute for Social Enterprise and Development of the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation. It hasn’t been easy. As they say – the path to doing good is the hardest. Well, I am happy to say, at least I’m never bored.

Contributed by: Anna Cabatuando, the Program Officer for ISED of BCYF