(Eagle News) — For these members of Bicol’s Kabihug Tribe, not taking part in the Iglesia ni Cristo’s Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty was out of the question.
At one point in their lives, after all, they were the ones who were suffering from poverty, that is until they were chosen as beneficiaries for the Felix Y. Manalo Foundation’s housing and livelihood projects in 2016.
Through the Iglesia ni Cristo’s social arm, an INC community project consisting of 300 housing units, a learning center and livelihood facilities was built on a 100-hectare land in Barangay Bakal, Paracale especially for them.
The learning center offered kindergarten and Grade 1 education to the children of the Kabihug families.
The livelihood facilities on the other hand included a 20-hectare calamansi orchard, a 300-square-meter fish-drying plant, an eco-farm and a garment factory.
Members of the tribe, who have long been subjected to discrimination because of their ethnicity, walked the streets with smiles on their faces, eager to help those who were, once essentially, them.
