Challenge One: Summiting Mount Pamintinan and Mount Binacayan in a single day. Challenge Two: Meeting with children and families in need at the base of these climbs and making a connection that would last long beyond a single day. Life is about focus and efforts going in multiple directions, and when you’re a volunteer with ECLARO’s Project E-Care, that journey can happen in, yes, a single day.
Before dawn on a recent Sunday morning, ECLARO volunteers in the Philippines laced up their boots and set out for the Montalban Twin Hike in Rodriguez, Rizal. The group would log a combined elevation gain of 850 meters over demanding trails, an impressive effort, but the real reward of the day would begin when they arrived down at Brgy. Wawa.
Project E-Care outings like this one do not claim to resolve systemic issues in isolation. They do, however, show how sustained volunteer involvement signals to peers, partners and future professionals that private organizations can contribute meaningfully by showing up consistently, mobilizing resources and prioritizing true presence over mere spectacle.
Camaraderie and Connection
ECLARO’s Luis Garcia joined the day’s events to help the local community, but also to build camaraderie with colleagues. The terrain tested everyone, whether steep inclines heading up or loose rocks on the descent that demanded careful footing on fatigued legs. Yet the collective end goal kept the entire group moving.
“The descent proved even more punishing than the ascent,” Garcia recalls. “What kept us moving was the thought of the children waiting at the base.”
Indeed, reaching Brgy. Wawa after the climb shifted the experience. Smiles and excitement from the awaiting children renewed the volunteers’ energy. Inclement weather, rather than disrupting plans, became part of the shared memory.
Rain arrived midway through the program Project E-Care had planned, but activities continued under a downpour that could dampen nobody’s spirit as volunteers and residents slid along muddy ground together, played local games like pabitin and palayok and adapted mental math challenges on the spot.
During the improvised activities held inside a single cottage, Garcia found himself at the microphone giving market- and commute-based math problems. The children answered quickly and confidently, many having already handled such transactions for their families in daily life.
School supplies were given to 50 children. Hygiene kits went to 50 adults. Food support completed the day’s direct assistance for all. The distribution of tangible materials combined with the emotional connection together revealed something deeper than anyone not there in person could truly feel. As the children received their items with oversized joy, Garcia noted the contrast with places where abundance can dull the appreciation for small things.
“The children of Brgy. Wawa were not the ones who needed teaching,” he says. “They were the ones trying to teach us.”
A Fresh Perspective on Giving Back
From the moment of the volunteers’ arrival, the Project E-Care group was welcomed with a warmth that went beyond what anyone might have expected. Parents dressed children in their best clothes and families opened homes for rest after the hike, gestures that carried immense weight given daily resource constraints in the community. Throughout the day, residents helped set up props, prepared food and participated as if the outreach were meant to extend both ways.
“I came expecting to be the one helping out a less-fortunate community,” Garcia says, capturing a reversal in sentiment that many felt. “Instead, I found myself receiving hospitality, effort and warmth from the people of Brgy. Wawa.”
Giving and receiving often flow in both directions when connections form on equal ground.
For Garcia and others, the pairing of such a physical challenge as mountain hiking with the emotional element of the community engagement created a unique space for reflection. The hike stripped away daily routine and left participants open to more easily embrace not just the “what” of their volunteerism, but the “where.”
“The whole experience changed what I think about giving back,” he shares. “It is not only about what you donate or how much time you set aside. It is also about experiencing the world that surrounds the people you are looking to serve.”
Read More About ECLARO Project E-Care Here!