SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique—Thirty elderly from Barangay Igbalangao in Bugasong town each received a bucket of rice from the benevolent staff of Radyo Natin FM Station on December 23.
Station Manager Jose Allan S. Bartolo initiated the activity as part of his advocacy to share whatever was given to him. This drive is supported by his friends abroad, who sent cash donations and clothes, books and toys he shares with the less-privileged in their community.
This year they trekked a good distance uphill to reach the small hut of a blind woman, all living by herself at the age of 97 in Sitio Bulan-bulan, Barangay Igbalangao.
“Like the blind woman, there were other blind people whom we selected to be the recipients of this year’s Rice Bucket Challenge. They may have lost their sight and they were denied to savor through their eyes the beauty of this world, yet our love and care for them gave them light and hope,” Bartolo said in a phone-patch interview while traversing the hills to reach the woman’s place.
One bucket contains five gantas of clean rice. If there are sponsors, the bucket goes with a pack of milk, sugar and coffee.
The rice-bucket challenge started in 2013, as Bartolo was inspired to do things “outside the box” after he finished his Philippine Development Education (PE) Course. It led to his winning the international recognition as Joe Biden Development Educator of the Year in 2015.
Aside from giving buckets of rice just the other week, Bartolo trekked to a remote village, Barangay Yapu, also in Bugasong town, to give gifts to 110 school children and 22 household heads. He also chose some elementary schools located in the remotest part of Bugasong and conducted a school-feeding program, gardening in school where he distributed vegetable seeds to school children, and teaching children to love reading by giving them books from other benevolent donors.
Bartolo also showed his care for the environment through his biannual tree-planting activities in Barangay Camangahan, where Bugasong’s watershed was situated. Artolo thanked the elderly who received the bucket of rice, for inspiring and reminding him the meaning of life.
Their smiles, Bartolo added, remind those who have more in life the worthiness of existence. And for Bartolo, “this is the real meaning of Christmas.”