A Life-Changing Event: An Outreach Program by AGSB MM Humres Class A02

August 26, 2007: What seemed like an ordinary day turned out to be EXTRA-SPECIAL, not only for our HUMRES class, but also for our family members and the Bantay Bata kids. In fact, to most, if not to all of us – it was indeed, a life –changing event………..

Our HUMRES class, together with our loved ones, celebrated our Sunday Family Day at the La Mesa Eco Park .  We had the privilege to be with 21 children and their respective house parents from the Bantay Bata 163 Foundation.

This outreach program was brought about by an initial discussion in our HUMRES class, under the supervision of  Professor Verne Quiazon, on what we can contribute individually to make this “world’ a better place to live in.  Well, in our case – to make this country a better place, especially for the children…they are our hope for the future!  We were encouraged to come up with very simple, doable and helpful activities that we can very well accomplish during the term.

Our group chose the La Mesa Eco Park as the best venue for us to hold our outreach with the Bantay Bata kids.  We believe that this initiative will create awareness for these young children on the importance of our environment and our role in keeping it clean and safe.

The day started with a simple welcome ceremony for the 21 children.  These kids come from underprivileged families and are currently under the care of Bantay Bata, because of their unfortunate experiences with physical abuse and domestic violence. 

Our group was then escorted by our tour guide and we had the chance to see the beautiful sites (e.g. La Mesa dam, Fitness trail, playground, lake for boat ride) within the La Mesa Ecopark.  In fact, all of us, including the children had the chance to experience actual tree-planting.  You see, we had to plant about 43 trees - for each of us, some friends and family members who supported us with this PLANT-A –TREE program.  This part was our contribution to the environment.

After the tour, we settled at the Ipil-ipil Pavilion where we had lunch, conducted games for the kids, story-telling in small groups and some more snacks afterwards.  This is where we each had the chance to really interact with the kids. Our one-on-one story telling time was commended by the Bantay Bata representative because such has been done for them for the first time. She has witnessed the quality time we poured for them and the kids comprehended the values we wanted to impart from each story book. We were able to actually have a glimpse of how talented and beautiful they are, despite of what they have been through, at a very young, innocent age.

Indeed, August 26 turned out to be a very fruitful day for all of us.  It was a day that most of us will not only remember as a “Fun day” but more importantly, will be a source of inspiration for us to sustain our enthusiasm and drive to make our individual contributions to both the community and the environment, as a whole. 

This particular activity wouldn’t have been very successful without the help and support  of our friends, colleagues at work and family members who have donated and contributed their resources to make this activity more successful and worthwhile for each of us. Special thanks to the Bantay Bata Foundation and “Umagang Kay Ganda” crew who have made our dream project a successful reality as well.

Finally, we feel that we took home more than the Bantay Bata kids did.  We had the privilege of learning a lot from these children.  There was a clear realization that each of us can contribute in our own way to share and give back to our community, with the hope that this simple effort will snow ball and continue to influence and inspire our brothers and sisters to do the same for our country and fellow Filipinos.

AGSB MM HUMRES Class A02 2006-2007 
Prof. Verne Quiazon, Janeth Arellano, Michael Basa, Jessielyn Canoy, Rochelle Charvet, Esther Gabatin, Marc Deogracias, Winifred Paguia