USC Community Fair at Pook Libis
May 18, 2008. The University Student Council (USC) a few Sundays ago held a community fair, entitled LAKBAY, at Pook Libis within Barangay UP Campus here in Quezon City. The day-long activity was spearheaded by the Community Rights & Welfare Committee and the Education & Research Committee.
It was basically an event that aimed to unite the members of the UP community in a day of sharing and empowerment, through various workshops, services, and other such similar activities.
The USC has always recognized the fact that part of our constituents’ holistic formation in campus are the experiences and other services rendered by non-academic sectors of our university. Thus, we wish to continue a tradition of service in the form of interaction between the members of the community and the student body.
It was the first time I’ve been to the community we picked, Pook Libis. I never realized that a community existed within campus albeit far from the fringes of C.P. Garcia. It was indeed a depressed community.
One thing organizations must be vigilant with, with regards to the conduct of community service fairs, is the tendency of such activities to turn into the usual outreach programs, the way multinational companies and students from elite private schools conduct such activities, because such only reinforce the inequality among people. The assistance rendered tend to be short-term in nature and tokenistic in approach, in a manner that such activities seldom occur, and at the convenience of the participants.
The organizers in the USC made sure that part of our activities’ programs must include social and political organizing and awareness campaigns. We had talks from organizations that informed them of the issues behind the food and energy crises, empowering them by organizing their ranks to realize their power of self-determination through collective action in a so-called democratic society. A constant immersion by students and their student leaders in such communities must also take place. Only then, I believe, can community fairs maintain lasting relevance.
Tags: community fair, depressed community, University Student Council
Kudos to the current University Student Council of UP Diliman in maintaining its militant tradition with such activities that unite the students and the underrepresented sectors of the UP Community. It’s good to know that our official student representatives recognize that our community is not only composed of the faculty, staff and students, but also of other sectors (e.g. residents from villages within the campus, drivers of UP jeepneys, local UP vendors). The interests of these people are indeed entwined, and must not be seen as being in opposition with one another.