Youths build health center in Mandaue relocation site

Twenty-three youth volunteers from Belgium and The Netherlands and Cebu City help construct the multipurpose center and health center at a 6.5-hectare relocation site in Barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City.

The project’s construction started last Aug. 2 and is targeted to be completed by tomorrow, Aug. 5.

The foreign youth volunteers, composed of 10 Dutch and eight Belgian delegates, three Dutch adult leaders and two Belgian adult leaders, are here in Cebu for a Multicity Youth eXchange (MYX) 2016. They are currently staying at the vacant row houses at the relocation site.

The MYX 2016 started last July 20 and will run until Aug. 9.

Jenny Lea Tan, program officer of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.-Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center (RAFI-EADSC), said RAFI-EADSC, together with its partners, the Vriendschapsband Haarlemmermeer Cebu (VHC) from The Netherlands, the City of Kortrijk, Belgium, the City of Cebu, the Central Visayas Network of NGOs and Young Minds on eXplore 4, organized the MYX 2016 for the Cebuano, Dutch and Belgian youth volunteers to share among themselves relevant issues of their respective countries.

The project is a component of Young Minds Academy (YMA), a youth leadership and citizenship development program of RAFI-EADSC. It includes activities like team building, house build project, small group projects (children’s home and agriculture-themed immersion), visits to organizations, youth interactions and other outreach programs.

Through volunteer works, community immersion, exchange and other activities, the organizers hope to build the 3Cs (character, competence and citizenship) among the participants.

The project aims to help young people prepare for leadership in the workplace and to become responsible citizens.

Tan said the role of the youth has been recognized as one of the key components for progress. “Their energy and idealism are needed qualities to bring about positive change in the society,” she said.

Tan said MYX will generate solutions to various issues affecting the Philippine and Dutch and Belgian societies.

MYX is an offshoot of the Pinoy-Dutch eXplore (PiDeX), an immersion program in Cebu for the Dutch youth anchored by RAFI since 2006.

The program is under the larger framework of the sister city relationships between Cebu City, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Another project lined up for the beneficiaries of Paknaan relocation site will be the construction of 80 typhoon resilient homes, which came into fruition after the homeowners association sought the help of Habitat for Humanity.

Tony Pet Juanico, head of Mandaue City’s Housing and Urban Development Office, said he was very glad of the project that will provides homes to the homeless in Mandaue.

Residents who have been living at the relocation site for more than a year said they were hoping that the project would also include a drainage and road concreting as their place is very muddy.