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Article written by Rose Ann Panaligan
What is more interesting in our existence is not the kind of life that we live but the way we live it.
People live in their own ways. Some live in luxury, some spend their lives ordinarily but people have their own choices to make their lives worth living.
Team Matalaw is a group of five students from Batangas State University, headed by Ms. Vaberlie Mandane, which serves as the pioneering youth arm for initiating the Calumpang River rehabilitation. The team is composed of Kimberly Joy Ilagan (project leader), Hazel Neriz Contreras, Lenz Jefferson Ongjoco, Kimberly Laqui, and Kenneth Charles Cepillo.
The moniker, matalaw, is a Batangueño word meaning tall and slender. Like a bamboo, the team considers their goal high but with a slim chance of success. But like a bamboo, we can assume that this group will resist to falter until they reach their goals.
According to some researches, since the year 1991 to 2011, Calumpang River is considered polluted. Although there are no projects initiated to save Calumpang River, except for coastal clean-up, the fact that there are people willing to participate is the motivation that pushes Ms. Mandane to build a team which aims to make noise (mangalampag in local language) about the state of the river and what people can do to save it.
The campaign, “Kalampag para sa Calumpang” targeted six barangays near the river banks but only two of them, Brgy. Cuta and Brgy. Kumintang Ibaba responded. This campaign encompasses community mobilization, education, information dissemination, public relations and partnership building, lobbying of legislation for sustainability and small-scale river clean-ups.
Last October 6, 2012, students, educators, environmentalists, civil society groups and environmentally conscious Batangueños converged at Plaza Mabini for the community parade which kicked off the group’s six-month-long campaign followed by the pledge of youth in every
community.
After the launch of the campaign, the team is hoping to encourage more people to be part of saving Calumpang River. They intend to change the behavior of Batangueños as they believe that this change will come from each one of us. Having self-discipline is a simple way of contributing to Team Matalaw’s advocacy.
Because of their strong faith in the power of the youth, they are who Team Matalaw are trying to tap huge support from. They want to create interest among the younger generation to participate in their advocacy. Anyone can be a volunteer, government official or not.
The team held a seminar last Saturday, January 19, where they tackled their future projects such as mangrove planting and placement of trash bins along the river bank.
Even though the implementation of the project is set to end by March 8, the team will continue with their campaign. “After ng project, tuloy pa rin ang campaign dahil sa malaking pangangailangan ng impormasyon para sa kampanya,” said Ms. Mandane with great enthusiasm.
We are very fortunate to be given the chance to live but what makes us worthy of having our space on earth is when we make most of the chance given to us by doing something meaningful.
To get to know more about Team Matalaw, you can visit their Facebook page – www.facebook.com/matalaw.batangas.
Photo credit: Team Matalaw
