MARIVELES, Bataan: Birthday celebrants for the month of November of employees of GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. (GMEC) spent a day with 32 farmers from Barangay Dangcol in Balanga City, Bataan as part of the coal-fired power plant’s Project Saysay.
The 15 birthday celebrants with the theme “Tribute to our farmers attributes” joined the farmers in planting and harvesting corn, sweet potatoes and sweet potato stems.
GMEC Corporate Social Responsibility coordinators said they had long wanted to show appreciation to local farmers and November’s Project Saysay became the perfect avenue to pay tribute to the unsung heroes who are the sources of food for the country.
“We’ve been planning this for so long and finally we had the opportunity to help our local farmers here in Bataan,” said GMEC CSR manager Joseph Chavez.
“To put Project Saysay into perspective, GMEC gives premium to all sectors of the community, especially the marginalized. This project helps us connect and experience, even just a glimpse, of what goes through in the daily lives of the different communities we visit each month,” he added.
The celebrants aside from helping the farmers plant and harvest some of their crops also distributed for each farmer five kilos of rice, grocery items, a rechargeable sprayer and assorted gardening tools.
The farmers joined the celebrants and GMEC employees in a boodle fight, parlor games and videoke singing during the lunch break.
“This Project Saysay made me realize how hard a farmer’s life is and how thankful we should be to them for they are the ones providing us food,” said one of the volunteers, Control Room Operator Rainier Juvi Singson of the Operating department.
“I’m grateful to GMEC especially the ComRel team for letting us have this experience. It is such a joy that we can also give them a smile with our simple gesture. I have brought home not only memories but also a lesson to my children to not waste food because it is coming from the farmer’s hard work,” he said.
Project Saysay is one of GMEC’s advocacies with the mission to “Plant A Love” among the community through outreach programs led by employee volunteers.
This program encourages monthly birthday celebrators in the company to choose a community or group they wish to share their special day with. Moreover, it aims to be an avenue for collective action of employees and be a beacon of hope for their chosen beneficiaries.
