1.
Our school
- When we began schooling, we
realized that there are other
people around us who are not
part of our family.
- We were expected to relate well
with classmates, the teacher, the
school nurse, the school janitor,
the security guard, and other
school staff.
- Every school strives to offer a
holistic formation where
students are not only
intellectually developed, but also
formed in character in order to
be well-rounded citizens of the
country.
2. Community Helpers
- Outside of school, we began to
notice these community helpers
in their natural work
environment
- the policeman on the street, the
doctor in her clinic, the fireman
in the speeding fire truck, the
street sweeper, the priest in the
church, or the businessman in
his store.
- The same people continue to be
part of our social lives.
- Their presence reminds us to
appreciate the different but
valuable services they offer to
the community.
- Our part is to give them our
cooperation, respect, and
obedience.
- Relating with them positively will
somehow contribute to creating
a peaceful community.
- can be important resources for
our learning about their line of
expertise. They can even inspire
us in our choice of career.
3. Friends
- We start gaining friends
especially at this time in our life,
when we are in our growing
years. We are adolescents, and
this creates the ambivalence
that makes us feel
uncomfortable.
- This is the time when we want to
distance from our family and be
independent. Friends and peers
become a stronger influence.
Outside the family, friendships
contribute in our process of
maturity.
4. People in the Neighborhood
- Beyond making friends in school,
we also face the challenge of
forming circle of friends in the
neighborhood. We want to be
assured that we have some
friends with us when we jog
around, play basketball or
badminton, or simply to listen to
our stories.
 - Often times, it is through the
influence of friends that we get
involved in community projects,
or it is with friends that we truly
enjoy doing community work.
5. Our nation
- Young people need to be
empowered through exposure to
small social involvements before
they can join more serious
involvements in nation building.
Examples are joining a marathon
along with our circle of friends or
a tree-planting activity for a
greener and cleaner air.
- The possibilities are endless for
learning social responsibility
while we are young.
- The Filipino nation from the time
of Rizal up to the present, look
up to the youth as the “hope of
the fatherland.”
- Relating with other nation in this
way contributes to our becoming
a worthwhile citizen and
enhances our development in
the political sense.
6. The Marginalized in the Society
- The poor, the weak, the elderly,
the handicapped, the sick, the
prisoners – these are the
“others” in our life that we need
to extend our hands to.
- They are the ones whom we can
address as “kapwa ko” because
they are the ones who are most
in need of help and do not have
the capacity to help themselves.
- Nearly all of the world’s religions
focus on caring for poor as a
requirement for becoming truly
religious.
- As the Dalai Lama says: “Love
and compassion are necessities,
not luxuries. Without them,
humanity cannot survive.”
7. The Global Family
- With the aid of modern
technology and the
establishment of the social
media networks, it has been
more convenient to share news,
ideas, and a lot of things with
more people.
- “Globalization is not just about
economic markets, technology,
and comparative advantage, but
also about human relations
across nations, religions, and
cultures,” as stated in Cory
Aquino’s article, “Family,
Spirituality, and the Filipino
sense of Nationhood in the
Filipino Spiritual Culture: Social
Transformation and
Globalization”.
8. The material world
- Environmental justice is defined
by United States (US)
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) as the “fair
treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people
regardless of race, national
origin, or income, with respect
to development,
implementation and
enforcement of environmental
laws, regulations, and policies.”
 - We all need to enjoy a healthy
environment. Care for the
environment is part of working
for social justice because we are
the ones who destroy the
environment, and it is usually
the poor people who take the
brunt of the social sin. Protecting
it benefits the common good.
9. God, Creator and Supreme
Being
- Relating with a Transcenent
Being who is believed to have
been given different names by
different people, but is the same
God, is necessary for all people.
- According to Abdullah Nasih
Ulam, author of Child Education
in Islam, “the common ailaments
of humans ocieties, personal as
well as societal, find their
remedy in monotheism (belief in
one God) and justice.”
We make relationships in different
situations. No relationship should be taken
for granted, especially the one we have
with God. We have seen how our various
relationships promote our development as
persons intellectually, socially,
economically, and politically.