A local troop of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) based in Pantukan, Compostela Valley was awarded the Pilar Hidalgo Achievement Award last week besting other GSP troops all over the country.

Sta. Teresa Elementary School's GSP Troop 228 was given the award last May 22 at the Museo Pambata in Quezon City. Troop 228 became a national finalist after winning the regional level just two months ago.

The Pilar Hidalgo Lim Troop Achievement Award aims to encourage community development and ensure that the programs undertaken by the troop are indeed what the community members consider important for their locality.

Brienlyn Bano, teacher and troop leader of Troop 228, and Bonifacio Abalayan, purok chairman of Purok Durian, Sta. Teresa, received the award from the GSP.

In her speech, Bano shared the award with the local community of Pantukan and their contributing partner - King-King Copper Gold Project (KCGP).

KCGP is a partnership between Nationwide Development Corporation (Nadecor) and St. Augustine Gold & Copper Ltd. (SAGCL) wherein the two companies are working together to develop the world class King-king Project while partnering with the community to meet the needs of Pantukan.

"This Pilar Hidalgo Lim Award gives us (the troop, the community, & our partner stakeholder the SASI/NADECOR-KCGP) an overwhelming recognition from its legacy of promoting leadership among the girls through service for community development," she said.

KCGP supported the project all throughout for its technical and financial needs.

"This award is just a testament on how we could achieve something if we're one in doing what's good for the community," said Mr. Jonathan Banez, community development manager of the King-king Copper-Gold Project (KCGP).

What was started as a small purok beautification project is now a full-blown community livelihood initiative program (CLIP) with more than 50 households reaping the benefits.

A half-hectare lot just beside the purok is now a fully-developed vegetable garden, where the troop and the members' parents toil, plant and harvest different varieties of vegetables for their consumption and for selling to generate income for the purok.

Aside from vegetable gardening, the program has also introduced vermiculture, tilapia raising and mushroom culture. And they planned to add more as the project continues to grow. KCGP Operations Manager Pete Cancino expressed his company's continued support to projects that would help the community.

"It is our joy to see that the success of CLIP is now being replicated in the different barangays of the Municipality of Pantukan. We fully support the project, because we see that this is not a mere girl scouting activity but more of a reformation within the community. We see this as a community effort and that's what the King-king Project promotes," he said.

"We would like to congratulate the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and the Pilar Hidalgo - Lim Awards Committee for attaining their impressive goal to encourage community development and ensure that the programs undertaken by the troop are indeed what the community members consider important for their locality as we assure you that the King-king Project will continuously support sustainable community based-projects and advance the sustainable development of host communities by forming local partnerships and improve economic benefits," he added.

SOURCE: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1141523