Written by: Kuya Justin Regino, Core Team Member
It was a rainy afternoon during the last day of September 2017. However, it did not prevent Ate Nikki from sharing her blessings and celebrate her belated 30th birthday with the children of Gentle Hands orphanage, located in Project 4, Quezon City.
Gentle Hands is a ministry dedicated to helping the urban people of the Philippines. It promotes child and youth welfare, meant to be on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation of the medical, social and educational needs of at-risk children and youth. Choosing Gentle Hands as a beneficiary was the perfect way for Ate Nikki, together with her family and friends, to have a meaningful birthday celebration, while contributing to the cause of the ministry.
The event was facilitated by Kuya Rich. To start, he grouped the 30 children and adult volunteers into four groups of ten – a mix of boys, girls and adult volunteers. Afterwards, everyone was asked to introduce themselves to their respective groups by sharing their name, favorite food, favorite actor or actress, and dream job. Finally, two representatives from each group were asked to introduce one another to everyone in the room.
After getting to know one another, the microphone was passed on to Kuya Em-em, our guest performer for the afternoon. Kuya Em-em is a ventriloquist, an entertainer who makes their voice appear to come from a dummy of a person or animal. Together with him was Choi-choi, a ten year old boy puppet, with spiky hair, wearing a striped baseball shirt. Their performance brought huge smiles and laughter to both the kids and volunteers. There was a mixture of jokes, sing-a-longs, and question & answer that piqued everyone’s curiosity and sense of humor.
The next activity was a game of charades relay. Each team was asked to form a straight line, with the volunteers leading in the front and back. Like the typical game of charades, the representative per group must act out the animal that the game master specifies. But for this version, the action must be relayed from the first person until it reaches the second to the last member. Then, the last person must guess what animal is being portrayed and run to Kuya Rich to tell him the answer. After four rounds of acting as dogs, pigs, monkeys and giraffes, group 4 was declared the winner having the most number of correct answers of all the teams.
The next game was called, “Eksena Mo Toh”. The objective of the game is for each group to act out scenes that we encounter on a daily basis, specified by the game master. The winner for each round will be chosen based on the accuracy and creativity of the group in coming up with the scene. In each round, the teams showcased their imagination and resourcefulness in painting pictures of people congested inside the MRT, fruits inside a blender and a cooking scene in the kitchen. In the end, Ate Nikki and group 3 won, having the most number of points in all rounds.
The last activity is a kite-making project facilitated by Kuya Danny. Using only Japanese papers, tapes, scissors, strings and thin wooden sticks, each kid, with the help of the volunteers, made their own kites. Though it was quite a challenge in helping out 30 children, our efforts were fruitful once we saw them enjoy playing with their kites.
After two hours of fun and bonding, it was now time for everyone’s favorite part: merienda. Ate Nikki offered a healthy balanced meal of roast chicken and rice. This was the fitting snack to reenergize everyone after a series of tiring exercises. Shortly after, in order to conclude Ate Nikki’s celebration, everyone gathered around to sing her a happy birthday.
As the Indian author and entrepreneur Mohith Agadi once said, “If you want to celebrate a happy occasion, do it by helping those who are in need.” Indeed, our event was an embodiment of this statement. Through sponsors like Ate Nikki’s family and friends, we are able to provide support and teach values to marginalized children through meaningful activities. With the ‘Ber months now in season, our celebration is a perfect way to promote the spirit of Chistmas giving.