JEDDAH, 3 March 2006 — In three months, a Saudi Arabia OFW Gawad Kalinga Village will soon rise in eastern Philippine town of Padre Burgos, Quezon province.

Ground was broken recently for a housing village in a 6.7-hectare land along a highway, some 160 kilometers away from Manila.

The land was donated by the family of Padre Burgos town Mayor Ding Villena, according to Gawad Kalinga’s project director, Manny Lector.

Lector said the beneficiaries of the housing villager have been identified by local officials and NGOs as among the “poorest of the poor” in the province.

The village that will be built in Padre Burgos will have some 40 houses. Each house costs around 60,000 pesos or about $1,100. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia, in a series of campaigns last year, raised more than 2 million pesos (more than $38,000).

Lector explained that Gawad Kalinga is not engaged in doleouts.

“Gawad Kalinga envisions empowered communities, whose residents are not only receivers but givers as well,” he said.

He said recipients of Gawad Kalinga have to help in the construction of the houses, an and to maintain and beautify their homes. That is why, Lector said, Gawad Kalinga houses are brightly painted, amid beautiful parks, playgrounds and clean surroundings.

Gawad Kalinga is also known as GK-777, the three “7s” meaning 700,000 homes in 7,000 villages in 7 years.

Lector said that Mayor Villena hopes to welcome OFWs from Saudi Arabia who may want to visit the village.

Gawad Kalinga’s projects can be viewed in the movement’s website at www.gawadkalinga.org.