MANILA– Harvard Club Philippines (HCP) celebrated the Harvard community’s Annual Global
Day of Service by gifting Manila’s homeless under the care of the Arnold Janssen Kalinga
Foundation (AJKFI) with a much-needed donation of rice and drinking water on August 31.
“As [Harvard’s] alumni club in the Philippines, we thought we should participate in this tradition
and I am grateful to all our members who helped make this happen. It was very inspiring to see
how AJ Kalinga is run,” shared HCP Co-President Carol Dominguez.
Much-needed rice, water
Together with Dominguez, other Harvard alumni visited the AJ Kalinga Center in Tayuman,
Manila to personally turnover 20 25-kilo sacks of rice, as well as 1,440 550-ml. bottles of water
through Manila Water.
Harvard Club member and Manila Water Regulatory Affairs Director Atty. Kaye Celera, who was
also present, shared how AJKFI’s mission aligned with Manila Water’s advocacy: “I am very
impressed by the advocacies and programs of AJ Kalinga… I thought it fitting to share our SDG6
advocacy on clean water and sanitation for all, so we provided bottles of drinking water to
augment the sacks of rice given by the club.”
“Together with the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Club, we are glad to extend
support for AJ Kalinga,” she added.
‘True greatness’
AJKFI founder Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, who personally received the donations and toured the
HCP cohort around the feeding center, commended the group’s concern for the marginalized.
“Our dear friends from Harvard Club offered something from their hearts. In so doing, those in
search for a slice of dignity and some sense of normality found what they were looking for. Now
that is how true greatness is shaped, something worth emulating,” the priest said in an
interview.
Our dear friends from Harvard Club offered something from their hearts.
In so doing, those in search for a slice of dignity and some sense of normality found what they were looking for.
Meanwhile, HCP trustee Atty. Gianna Montinola shared how she recommended AJKFI to the
group after a volunteer management organization she heads called Hands On Manila first
volunteered with AJKFI in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. “…Our organizations
cooked and distributed over 7,000 meals to street-dwellers. Not only did I admire AJ Kalinga’s
advocacies, I was also extremely impressed at how efficiently it was run. That is why I suggested
that the Harvard Club donate to its Kain-Ligo program,” explained Atty. Montinola.
The Harvard University community observes its Annual Global Day of Service every September
1.