701 Ate Cristelle’s Story Telling with National Children’s Hospital

Written by Board Member, Charmain Tan

As we continue our 10th year celebration serving marginalized children, we had another packed weekend last week.

We had two events last saturday morning. One of the events was the birthday celebration of Ate Cristelle. She turned 21 last January 19th. This year she wanted to celebrate her birthday in a different way. She invited her friends and family to spend time at the M3 ward of National Children’s Hospital. This hospital has been a partner hospital for six years now. Thanks for the support of the doctors, nurses, and staff of NCH, this is our 12th event with them to date. The children we spent with today had had different kinds of illness. Some were being treated for dengue, dermatitis, bad case of indigestion and infection. Most of them were younger than seven years old. There was even as tiny as a 4 month old baby, who was suffering from difficulty breathing so a tube had to be placed to aid in her breathing.

Books are a great way for us to travel and experience the world. It is a way for us to instill good values to children. Today was a day of stories. Our excellent story teller, Ate Dyaly, started the morning with a couple of great stories. Our event was held in 2 rooms, where we simultaneously did the activities planned for the day. Ate Dyaly first spent time with the children of the first room. She told the story of a boy named Mario who got to learn about the different animals. Ate Dyaly taught the kids the different kinds of animals through the sounds they make. She made animal sounds of dogs, cats, pig, and others.

While the first group enjoyed the animal stories, Ate Te and Kuya Glen were in the second room facilitating games for the older children. They did the point to the body part game where they would repeatedly say a body part then finally say the correct part the children were to point to. For instance, Kuya Glen would repeatedly say: “nose, nose, nose, nose,…… shoulders!” The kids had to point to their shoulders. The tricky part was that Kuya Glen also pointed to a different body part when he said “shoulders” which could cause a bit of confusion. The children laughed as they tired to stay alert and accurately point to the correct body part. Some had to point to several parts first before finally pointing to the correct one.

After the game Ate Dyaly came to the second room to do the story telling. She told the story of a boy who did not give importance to personal hygiene. Every time it happened vegetables would grow from the boy’s body part. In the end Ate Dyaly was able to teach the importance of keeping ourselves clean. After the main story telling we gave out story books so our volunteers can tell a story to each of the children. We partnered the ates and kuyas with the children in the ward. The volunteers got the chance to get to know the parents and children. After that they told a story to their kids. The children got to keep the story books as our gift to them.
We then had our early lunch and Ate Cristelle gave out gifts to the children. We sang a happy birthday song for the birthday celebrant. The volunteers each offered a simple message and prayer for their children as they said their goodbyes.
These children being at a very young age, we were glad to someone alleviate the discomfort they are suffering through the different stories we told. The children smiled as the volunteers tried their best to tell the stories as best as they could. The kids have been confined in the hospitals for days and weeks. Through our stories, we were able to transport these kids to a different world and share some lessons and values they can always carry with them.

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