October 2010

When the poorest Jesuit mission school in the Philippines Loyola College of Culion (www.loyolacollegeculion.com) tragically lost the grade school due to the global financial crisis, the entire community grieved. Grade schoolers wailed, teachers got laid off and parents never stopped requesting for the school's revival since then.

More than a year after the closure, one affirms that hope springs eternal as countless efforts are being exerted both on an institutional and personal level. Ateneo de Naga University extended a course on Entrepreneurial Tourism that allowed talented young souls in the area to pursue the most appropriate course for a booming tourism industry. Recently, two sophomores grabbed the national award from the British Council Social Enterprise competition showcasing their potential towards a world-class act. More than 300 members from marginalised communities banded together to form a consumer cooperative that has provided jobs, cheaper products and most importantly, economic stimuli for other business activities.

At the forefront of this is the flagship project Hotel Maya (www.islaculionhotelmaya.com) which is the first and only eco-tourism social enterprise hotel in the Philippines. The dream is to generate a sustainable income for the school while simultaneously advocating for ecological conservation in an area considered to be a last frontier.

Included in all of these is the engagement with Indigenous Peoples (IPs), communities where Adult Literacy Programs are implemented teaching basic reading, writing and arithmetic with catechism from retired LCC teachers. A Parish Mission Team is sent to more than 41 islands of more than 50 chapels and are regularly visited by two Jesuit missionaries who oversee more than a dozen tasks including the school, parish, hotel, cooperative, retreat house, farm, IP communities, engagements with the local government, environmental programs etc.

All these efforts are aimed at generating resources for scholars who do not even have a single centavo in their pockets and for the dream of reviving the only private Catholic education available in the area. This dream is alive and can be felt by anyone who visits the area.

And this is where the maxim cries out to the world, "I don't believe in miracles, I rely on them."

Come and see.

Blessings,
Fr Xavier Alpasa SJ