ENDEAVOR
This week, my column is devoted to sharing the message delivered by Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto at the Rotary District 3800 Training Assembly held at the Manila Hotel last May 18, 2024.
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“My encounter with the ultimate servant leader was when I met Jesus Christ. From him I embraced love with humility as the highest expression of Christian leadership, remarkably shown by his example of washing the feet of his followers.
To be the highest leader is to be the servant of all. Servant Leadership is about having a strong sense of community, about prioritizing the common good above purely self-interest. It is inclusive, does not discriminate, or leave anyone behind.
Servant Leadership had many expressions for me over the years.
In Youth for Christ (YFC) and Singles for Christ (SFC) which we started in 1993, it was about peer engineering to raise young men with a servant heart toward women. We transformed the irresponsible behavior of young men, many with raging hormones, by making them the protector of young ladies. Through values formation, we placed the greater challenge of chastity on the young men, not on the women, since the male of the species are often the aggressors.
Because of this focus on raising men with honor around them, I raised my four daughters without fear. Three of them married faithful husbands and devoted fathers who were raised in YFC and SFC and served as volunteers in Gawad Kalinga (GK).
In GK, it has always been about social fencing. The kindness that is expressed in dedicated and humble service to the least around us is the best protection for our family.
My passion to build the 3,000 GK communities in the Philippines and abroad for 20 years was triggered by an incident that happened in my home in 1996.
My wife Lyn and I woke up one night to find two men ransacking the rooms of our children for anything of value they could steal. We immediately locked our room, turned on the house lights and called the police for help. The intruders managed to escape to the slum area near our village without stealing anything or harming anyone. That frightful incident shook me out of my apathy and lack of concern for the informal settlers around me.
Within that year, I went to the biggest slum in our country, Bagong Silang in Caloocan City, to help transform the poverty mentality and dangerous behavior of gang leaders and members. Without political power or material wealth, armed only with faith in God and a servant heart, GK was recognized as one of the most popular NGOs in the world by the World Economic Forum, Skoll Foundation, Ramon Magsaysay Awards, and many more.
A true servant values the freedom to serve, not the power to rule.
The posture of humility of a servant leader breaks down hostility and creates harmony.
I say this with certainty after staring danger face to face in order to build peace in many places.
In the NPA areas in Samar and Leyte, we got soldiers to build the new communities for rebel returnees.
In Sulu, it was about Christian volunteers building homes for the Muslim Tausogs. I was there at the height of the kidnappings in Mindanao but I never felt fear because I went as a Christian leader armed with kindness and a servant heart. I stayed in the seaside home on stilts of Mayor Munib, who vowed in front of a thousand Tausogs, that no harm would ever come to the families of our Christian team who built the homes of Muslim families in Panglima Estino, Panamao and Patikul.
Mayor Munib said: “Hanggang ako’y buhay, walang Tausug na gagawa ng masama sa pamilya nyo, dahil kayo ay pamilya na namin. Ito ang basbas ko sa inyong mga anak kahit wala na ako.” (As long as I live, no Tausug will harm your family because you are family to us. This is my blessing to your children even after I am gone).
The passion of a servant to serve God conquers fear and fosters solidarity and harmony. I place the greater responsibility on the men to practice Servant Leadership at home because in many cultures, the men, being the physically stronger partner, behave like masters and treat their wives as lowly servants without compensation or compliment.
How can one be a Servant Leader in Rotary?
You are in Rotary because you are successful in your career - in your profession, in business, or in public service. Most of you are at the top of your game. The nobility about you being a Rotarian is your decision, despite your capacity for vanity and luxury, to follow Christ’s example of dying to self for others to simply live.
This is the heart and soul of Rotary. Its true spirit is when successful and privileged people like you do not abandon the less privileged to languish in poverty and misery.
To be a servant leader in Rotary is to be at the bottom of an inverted pyramid where your members and peers are at the top.
Be grateful to God that you have a choice to serve the bottom despite being at the top. If the breaks did not go your way, you would have been the beneficiary today of charity instead of being the benefactor. Be humble and serve in your outreaches to the marginalized without self-glorification. Be responsible, dependable and accountable for your actions and behavior to your organization and members.
Many of you will grow old in Rotary because sincere service keeps you happy and young.
Today, at 74 years old, I am enjoying the Blue Season of my life in my piece of heaven in Batangas. The Blue Season is the time of our life, from 60 to 90 years old, when we have grown wiser, kinder and happier pursuing new passions and adventures.
It pumps my heart and energizes me to serve farmers and the elderly in our surrounding community with kindness and a generous spirit.
Now, I have embarked on a new passion to promote the Paraiso Blue Zone Movement to help extend the life expectancy of Filipinos and to make Paraiso the first Blue Zone Farm in the Philippines.
May God help you find your piece of Paraiso in the Blue Season of your life. And may the many remaining years of your life be a blessing to your family, to your community, to our country, and our shared humanity.”