Mom shovels for a year to own condo unit

A MOTHER in barangay Lorega-San Miguel proved that perseverance and optimism can be a key to a comfortable home.

Carmelita Valenzona never gave up hope as she led her family in shoveling and even hammering everyday for a year at the construction site of the Gawad Kalinga Condoville 1, socialized condominium project.

Before construction started, she patiently juggled being a home maker and at the same time complying with the requirements for her family to qualify for the GK (Gawad Kalinga) Lorega-San Miguel Condoville 1.

From the time she arrived in Cebu in 1986, she has been either living with a relative or renting a place.

The strong desire to finally have something to call her own home drove Carmelita to strive hard until the family finally got hold of the key to the condo unit, their new home, last Friday, May 11.

Valenzona family is one of the 18 households belonging to the first batch of GK Lorega-San Miguel Condoville 1 beneficiaries.

Carmelita, with port checker husband Virgillo and three children will no longer rent a shanty for P2,500 in sitio Cerias.

Both luck and perseverance seem to have accompanied Carmelita as aside from her efforts of actively participating in the preparations for the socialized housing project, her name was the last one called in a raffle drawn for beneficiaries last April.

“I did not expect that my name will be called. The listed names reached 32 and only 24 will be called. My name was the last name called. I did not understand how I felt then,” said Carmelita in Cebuano.

Carmelita and four other cemetery settlers, armed with shovel and hammer, were among the first residents who helped GK volunteers and contractors when the development of a former cemetery into a socialized condominium started last year.

From May 2011 to May 2012, Carmelita and her family rendered 2,000 hours of sweat equity, a major requirement in every GK housing project.

Under the sweat equity, a beneficiary is required to help in the construction of a house for at least 1,000 hours.

During the turn over ceremony, Tanny Go of GK Management Group-Finance said that applicants have to complete five criteria set by GK and the government.

But first the beneficiary should be a member of the GK United Cemetery Site Residents Association (UCESIRA).

Gawad Kalinga has set three things that an aspiring beneficiary has to complete: GK Kapitbahayan program, 10 sessions of values formation seminar, and sweat equity. /Correspondent Jessa Chrisn Marie J. Agua