It was finally our turn to take the stage. I excused myself from the group of people who wanted to get their blood pressure measurements taken, and went to where my team was. Looking into the crowd, it was such a sight to see; people starting to pile-up and finding their comfortable spot, kids who have no clue what’s happening and just playing on the back, vendors selling food on the sidelines – a good turn-out, as we had hoped.
Everything was set. From the stage, to the sound system, print-outs, data to be presented, logistics, and presence of the people of the barangay people and its officials – we were ready to start. A prayer, and singing of the National Anthem opened the assembly – setting the tone that something very serious will be taken up. We introduced ourselves and our purpose in the barangay, and the people were very accepting of our presence. We divided the crowd by purok and conducted a focus group discussion. A leader was assigned for each purok and they listed their top 5 problems. The members of the group really had different perspectives on the matter, and they weren’t afraid to speak or defend the things that they think were the problems of the community. The list of problems from each purok was presented and explained to the crowd. After, our team also presented our data in the most effective way we could think of. We explained each of the problems in our list from the survey we conducted. We appreciated the pro - activeness of the crowd during the assembly. Comments and points about our data were raised which we surely noted. Health teachings about hypertension and living a healthy lifestyle was also done.
In a world full of information, very few people listen. Due to differences in gender, age, culture, or opinion, we often ignore each other’s voices, preventing progress. No matter how far knowledge advances, there will be no use if nobody wants to hear it. Good thing that is not true in our case. The people were really ready to listen and contribute. We heard each other out. Even after the assembly, some were inquiring and mingling with the team, some also shared their experiences and life stories, and we were all ears. It was a good afternoon. Heavy rain came but we couldn’t care less. We were happy. We are ready to work hard with the community, OUR community.