By Carla N. Cañet

MRS. JEAN V. TREBOL (3rd from left) is SOROPTIMIST INT’L. OF BACOLOD RUBY AWARDEE for "Women Helping Women." She received the award during the International Women’s Day celebration held at Planta Hotel, Bacolod City yesterday. Also in photo are Soroptimists (l-r) Zeny Guzon, Inday Pefiangco, Araceli Mirano and Cecilia Salvador.*

The Soroptimist International of Bacolod has recognized several well meaning citizens of Bacolod City as part of the International Women’s Day celebration.

Jean Trebol and several others were honored and recognized for their great contributions in helping uplift the lives of others.

Trebol was a "Ruby Awar-dee for Women Helping Women" category.

In response, Trebol said that, "I am honored to receive this award which comes as a pleasant surprise, for when one decides to embrace community service as a social responsibility; it is hardly for personal gain or public recognition.

Nonetheless, this recognition you have generously bestowed on me, unexpected as it is, made me reflect on what it is that moves people to go beyond themselves, their private world of family, their professional engagement, or their personal business, to reach out to help other people and the community? What kind of stimulus or energy is it that moves people to give themselves especially to the marginalized, the underprivileged, the oppressed, the sick and the needy? What inner value is it that drives people to go beyond their comfort zones and tend to the last, the lost, and the least among us?"

She added, "I must admit that I do have big quixotic dreams of a just and fair and peaceful society where there is sufficient dignified work for all who need work, where there is adequate food on every family table, where education is accessible to all children, where basic social services are available to citizens, where public governance and leadership is anchored on the principles of integrity, honesty and accountability."

Big dreams for any person who has only one heart and two hands, that is true. But when we consider how much the Lord has blessed us beyond our basic needs, then we are behooved to share what we can with those who need our help, and though we are just but one, we can be many when we join hands and work together for the benefit of others and the community of which we are a part.

"I believe it is what I have done: to walk my faith and share God’s gifts so that some other person’s life may be better. And so I thank you for this singular honor, this honor which is not mine alone."

Trebol shares this honor with her fellow board members of the Kabalaka Development Foundation, especially to our dearly departed Mother Milagros Dayrit, from whom I drew my inspiration and with our faithful social worker James Dimalaluan who was shot and killed in the course of our work with small farmers in the hinterlands of Pontevedra.

She also shares this honor with her fellow board members of the St. Scholastica’s Bacolod Alumnae Foundation, her fellow Scholasticans, their generous donors and volunteers, especially those of the Aloha Medical Mission, who all selflessly left their families, their work, and their otherwise comfortable lives to heed the call for volunteerism, without fail, each time we go on health and surgical missions.

Trebol also shares this honor with her fellow members of the Bacolod Anti-BAHA Alliance, a multi sectoral group of advocates for a floodless, clean and green Bacolod, which can be accomplished only if we clear our waterways, address the problem of the endless influx of informal city dwellers by enforcing the law, provide decent and livable relocation sites for those who have already made Bacolod their home, fix and update our drainage system and construct floodways and embark on a serious waste disposal and recovery system by implementing the Solid Waste Management Law, to make our city clean, safe and healthy for all families.

She also shares this honor with her Alma Mater, St. Scholastica’s Academy for planting in her heart, the twin values of "Ora et Labora" prayer and work and giving me my first lesson in honing my skills for organizing and leadership.

She offers this honor the memory of her late father, Enrique Gamboa Velez, who taught her the value of hard work and perseverance in seeing through commitment, big or small, that I may make in my life and with my mother Lourdes Coscolluela Velez, by whose examples I learned faith in people and in God.

Most especially, she shares this honor with her beloved husband Tony who has been generously supportive of her in all that she gets involved in embracing my causes as his own. "I would not have been able to accomplish what I did if I did not have him as my pillar of support."

She further said, "I thank God for blessing me with the gift of faith and perseverance, for each opportunity given me to serve Him, for touching the hearts of all the selfless and generous volunteers who have shared, and continue to share the journey. May God continue to lift me up when the going gets rough and the odds are great, and the spirit goes weary, that I may persevere in going where he leads me and doing whatever else he may have me do, that in all these, He may be glorified."

Meanwhile, Soroptimist International of Bacolod’s "Women’s Opportunity" awardees were Marissa R. Parofil, Jonah May Nuniedo and Jona Samillano. For the Violet Richardson awardees are Catherine Y. Dumancas, Sheena Grace Diamante and Camille Denise Peñafiel.

They also inducted its new members yesterday.*