I first met Gina Alfonso in 1986 when we were both freshmen and shared some classes together. We did not become close friends until our senior year when we found ourselves in the yearbook staff together…
In 1998, after getting a master’s degree from Fordham University and a stint managing her family’s school, she took a trip to Bukidnon that would change her life and the lives of one of the communities she encountered there.
I have never been there but friends who have tell me that Miarayon is one the most beautiful places in the Philippines. It is also one of the poorest. Miarayon is land of the Tala-Andigs, one of the country’s neglected indigenous peoples. The land’s breathtaking natural beauty and fresh air do not make up for the fact that like most of the country’s indigenous populace, Tala-Andigs are very poor and do not have access to basic services. When Gina met with the tribal elders, a literacy program for their children was among their most urgent needs.
Her experience in Miarayon so touched Gina that she promised to return one day to help build a school for the community. In 1999 she fulfilled that promise. With a group that included her father Fil Alfonso, she founded the Cartwheel Foundation. Its short-term goal was to build a nursery in the community and provide scholarships for its most promising youth. The long-term mission, which became Cartwheel’s slogan was to bring education where it is needed most.
In the first year, with the help of sponsors like the Seattle-based Starbucks Foundation which had donated USD12, 600 and Rustan’s Coffee which gave Php270, 000, Cartwheel was able to build a pre-school for the community’s young children and send ten Tala-Andig scholars to Bukidnon State College and San Isidro University in Bukidnon. Ten years later, Cartwheel has been able to send 71 indigenous youth to college and over 300 indigenous children to school. Today, it has moved out of Miarayon and focused its resources on helping other indigenous peoples in Bukidnon, Agusan, Maguindanao, Zamboanga del Sur, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Ifugao, Mindoro, and Palawan.
Gina left Cartwheel as its president in 2004 to pursue her other life goals. Today the foundation is run by Rojean Caharian Macalalad[2] and other trusted professionals. Cartwheel remains a small foundation and like many has not been able to expand due to lack of funding but it has managed to keep to its core mission through the help of its committed community of funders. Gina still sits on Cartwheel’s board of trustees but puts its future squarely on the shoulders of its existing board and managers believing that a foundation must survive its original founder.
I was invited to Cartwheel’s tenth-year anniversary dinner last January which I attended with my husband Berck who sits on Cartwheel’s board. While I had not been in touch with the Foundation for a long time, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s entertainment and was surprised at what the group had achieved. Cartwheel scholars proudly performed their traditional dances dressed in gorgeous indigenous wear. Three scholars confidently talked about their experiences under the Cartwheel program and gave thanks to the foundation. The morale was very high indeed among the scholars. One highlight of my evening was meeting Berck’s scholar, Eleneday, a Tala-Andig who was one of Cartwheel’s first graduates. She is now a pre-school teacher in Manila but spends much of her free time giving back to the Cartwheel community that helped her. Because of Cartwheel she is able to determine her own destiny and help others like her do the same.
But that night, my overwhelming feeling was pride in Gina’s accomplishments. That night, dressed in skirt made from indigenous fabric, Gina gave a speech and thanked everybody who helped the foundation. But everyone in that room knew that it was Gina we owed our thanks to.
Today Gina is in Washington DC working as a therapist for troubled children from poor neighborhoods. Her specialty is using the power of art to help these children. She hopes one day to return to the Philippines.
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If you are interested in donating money to help IP, you may contact the Cartwheel Foundation at +632 584.1532, email at action@cartwheelfoundation.org, or its website: www.cartwheelfoundation.org.
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