Mr. Jaime Bernar, Program Director of Asociacion Zabalketa, was in the Philippines last November 5 to 24, 2008, He came to engage in the pre-implementation work on a project that Zabalketa and PCCED will undertake jointly in 2009. In addition, PCCED and Zabalketa are collaborating with the Ayuntamiento de Getxo (Town Council of Getxo) for the implementation of the second phase of their projects in Mindanao.  2009 also ushers in a new partnership with the Diputacion Foral de Gipuzkoa (Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa) which will involve a multi-pronged project that includes Civic Education Training Seminars, Summer Training for Public School Teachers, and Project Citizen for the Sorsogon Province, with the support of Governor Sally +++.

Atty Grace Tillah, Din Dizon, Mayor Celso Lobregat, Jaime Bernar

Mr. Bernar, a licensed lawyer, was a teacher of Social Studies and was, for many years, the sole worker at the Zabalketa office in Getxo, Spain.  His shift from the corporate world and the academe to development work began after a call to initiate an association for the alumni of the Colegio de Gaztelueta, an all-boys high school. The aim of the association is to coordinate the social and development work of the alumni.  Besides, in order to be of greater service to others, Mr. Bernar decided to engage in development work that is focused specially on poverty alleviation and international cooperation for development.  Mr.Bernar is actively involved in all of Zabalketa’s projects with all its local counterparts.

Jaime Bernar

Zabalketa is a non-government organization based in the Basque Country in Spain. Most of its development projects are in Latin American countries such Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. But it also has a few projects in Africa.  Zabalketa’s partnership with CRC and PCCED, which began a few years ago, is its first not only in the Philippines and in Asia.

In Spain, Mr.Bernar and Zabalketa’s work is directed to engage civil society in Spain in a process of social activism, In particular, it efforts focus on increasing awareness of poverty issues in other countries. Likewise, they assist vulnerable groups in Spanish society, such as immigrants, by providing some social services such as education support through academic tutorials, providing employment orientations, access to justice, among others.

For this visit to the Philippines, Mr.Bernar went to Zamboanga City and Sorsogon Province to observe and to familiarize himself with the socio-economic and civic education realities of the people in the selected project sites.  With PCCED’s Program Officer Claudine Dizon, Mr.Bernar went to public schools and barangays to meet with local residents. In this manner, he gained a better understanding of the real problems in the area.  Aside from being familiarized with the project sites, Mr.Bernar wanted also to determine the other needs in the communities that could be addressed in the future with the support of Zabalketa.

The continuing partnership between Zabalketa and PCCED in the future holds a lot of promise. Mr.Bernar expressed his wish that PCCED and Zabalketa’s could carry out more projects to broaden the development assistance to the communities where we are now present.