LAMDAG FOUNDATION for Women’s Projects Inc, held a fund-raising dinner on Oct. 11, 2023, for the construction of a three-story building, the Dayao Center. The main speaker was Francis Kong, a well-known speaker known not only in the Philippines but also around Asia and Europe because of his skill in talking about the pursuit of happiness for everyone – be they parents, children, young students or adults and the elderly or professionals and businessmen.
Alicia del Mundo, one of the founding members of Lamdag Foundation gave us an insight into Lamdag Foundation’s advocacy. It aims to transform society by forming women by conducting activities geared to the holistic formation of every woman – human, cultural, spiritual, and professional. It is their hope that by starting early in life, they will be able to produce women of character, integrity, and conviction, students, young professionals, and mothers, who can be anchored on Christian values and geared towards the perfect fulfillment of one’s duties.
The Center has been quietly working in private homes, since 1991 and established as a provisional center in 1999. In 2020, a team of professional women arrived in Davao to stay at the center. Public and private school students Came every Saturday to learn cooking, crafts, sports, guided prayer, and sessions on character education.
Girls and boys were accommodated to receive preparatory classes to receive the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Their parents continue to attend regular catechism and parenting talks.
Activities included sending food pails and immune-booster kits to different communities in Davao City, Koronadal City, Maitum, and Sarangani in June 2021; distribution of food pails to share the Christmas spirit to the less privileged barangays served by the Archdiocesan Nourishment Center with the tagline “Walang Gutom sa Pasko”
Each year, the center runs a leadership camp for girls called Kindle Camp where around fifty students between ten to sixteen years old gather for three days of fun, faith, and friendship. Monthly sessions are conducted for the human and spiritual formation of mothers and professional women at various venues. A monthly feeding program is held in Barangay Matina Aplaya for around sixty children with regular monthly activities for teens for basic cooking skills,
Some women at the Center work with a non-profit organization called EDUCHILD – Education for the upbringing of children, to help define their future. The young professionals are organized and guided by batches of LEAP – Life Endeavors and Projects. Parenting courses and sessions to strengthen marriages called Beyond I Do are conducted regularly.
The word Lamdag means “to give light” and for the foundation, it is to illuminate the minds of women on their roles in their families, communities, and society; to contribute to Mindanao in the development of women who can be future agents of change in society.
It is the goal of the Foundation to construct a three-story Dayao Center building which will be a permanent venue for classes and activities for girls aged 7 to teens, college girls, young professionals, and mothers, located on a 600 square meter lot along Camus Extension, Davao City. “You teach a woman. You form a family. You build a nation.”
Dinner was held at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Davao City featuring Thai Cuisine, with intermission numbers by Musikademy Chorale.
