The Noche Buena Project will benefit more than 100 families living along the Banica River in Dumaguete City this Christmas.
This is the first time that the Noche Buena Project will be extending its aid to Dumaguete City, in coordination with local counterparts and in a tie-up with the performing musical band, Ben & Ben, which staged a gig Thursday evening here at the Café Racer.
Already on its 9th year, the Noche Buena Project provides gift packs to depressed communities in many different parts of the country.
Karelle Bulan, lead organizer of the Noche Buena Project, explained during a press conference Thursday afternoon that the biggest challenge for them was during the distribution of gift packs in Tacloban at the height of the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda.
Ben & Ben, a nine-member band, explains why they have tied up with the Noche Buena Project, and playing in the “Hamon” gig series allows them to give a “spirit of positivity and love”, and is very much in line with the songs they write and the music they perform.
Asked why Dumaguete was chosen as among this year’s recipients, Joops Miranda, the local coordinator of the Noche Buena Project in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental, disclosed that the distribution of packages here will be done in cooperation with Fr. Burton Villarmente, the director of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Dumaguete.
At least 165 families of informal settlers living along the riverbanks have already been identified, with some 100 packages already budgeted, Miranda said.
He said they are hoping to be able to give more to the Dumaguete recipients. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)