National Heroes Build

GK at IBC 13

GK in Butuan

GK in Albay

Gary V at GK

CFC 16th Anniversary

GK Expo 2003

Bayanihan at Kabayanihan

The words "bayanihan" and "kabayanihan" come from the same root word, "bayani". Bayanihan is an old Filipino tradition. It must have been fun to join a bayanihan when the work was in the fields during planting or harvesting season, or to move a whole house by carrying it on poles on the shoulders of a couple of dozen men. But, is there fun in doing a bayanihan among the poorest of the poor? GK members work hand in hand with the members of a community, regardless of the smell of poverty that permeates everything.

What is the daughter of an oligarch doing among "the great unwashed"? Mikee Cojuangco is not in a movie set. She is "building" at the Kaingin GK community located near the NAIA, one of the many GK communities where bayanihan has begun to transform lives. Whatever ulterior motives that cynics would ascribe to her does not change the fact that there is something heroic about working in the slums.

Working at a GK community is not the only work Mikee does for GK. In the GK TV with a call-in feature, Mikee and Dodot Jaworski take the calls from viewers to contribute their services or resources.

More and more volunteers are joining GK and the bayanihan spirit is growing fast and wide. Perhaps, the affluent and the poor would cease to be "langis at tubig" when patriotism calls. The Gk kind of patriotism and heroism is not a call to arms; it is a call to man's inate sense of goodness and generosity, of working and not begging for alms, of transforming oneself, the community, and the nation.

There are many GK heroes, many of them unsung and unknown. To know more about GK projects and heroes, see the list at the left column.