For generations, the Mangyan community of Baclayan in Sta. Cruz, Occidental Mindoro has lived with a daily challenge that many people in cities can hardly imagine. Every drop of water used for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing must be carried on foot from a distant spring across steep and rocky terrain. What might seem like a simple daily chore becomes an exhausting journey that shapes how families live, how children grow up, and how women care for their households.
The absence of water and sanitation facilities has deeply affected the health, safety, and dignity of women and girls. Without toilets or bathing areas, many have had to rely on open spaces, with a Mangyan elder once describing their toilet as “as wide as the mountains.” For women and girls, this means growing up without privacy or protection. Many must wait until dark to find a place where they can relieve themselves without being seen. Managing menstruation without water or sanitation is difficult and unsafe, while the lack of proper facilities exposes them to illness, discomfort, and insecurity.
Marking the completion of the project, from left Fr. Ryan Dino, SVD, Parish priest of Holy Cross Parish in Occidental Mindoro, Lady Ann Valenton and Marides Almendras of Zonta Club of Metro Ortigas (ZCMO), Atty. Georgia Pangan of ZCMO
Recognizing these challenges, the Baclayan community began working with the Zonta Club of Metro Ortigas and the Parish led by Ryan Diño, SVD, to create a practical solution. In partnership with POWER 4 ALL, the initiative combines access to water, sanitation, and clean energy to improve everyday life in the community. Plans were quickly organized to build four toilets, four shower rooms, a septic tank, and a submersible pump that will bring clean water directly from the spring into Baclayan.
Mangyan Community in Baclayan
The Mangyan community themselves have taken an active role in building this future. Community members organized construction teams, volunteered labor, and worked together to construct the facilities. Solar lighting introduced through the partnership also brings safe and sustainable energy to the area, allowing families to move more safely at night and children to study after sunset. When completed, the project will benefit around 150 women and girls who will finally have access to safe sanitation, clean water, and lighting within their own community, restoring time, health, and dignity that were once lost to the daily struggle for water.
Contributor: Atty. Georgia Pangan