Written by Kuya Harvard
Typhoon Yolanda’s impact to the nation has affected not just the Visayan region but the entire world. The strength has been recorded most powerful to hit land, the aftermath was strong- thousands of lives lost and billions worth of property destroyed. A number of nations participated and sent help in the form of cash, goods and even manpower. U! Happy Events continued to share the burden and sent another team. This time in Leyte. This is our third trip. The first two was at Antique and Capiz.
Our team of 13 people- 11 women and 2 men took the earliest flight of December 27 via Cebu Pacific to Tacloban. This team including the whole event was only assembled in 15 days. The plan was initiated on the night of December 11. The goal is to build relationship to two towns in Leyte- Cananga and Jaro. The mission included life skills for the mothers, kids workshop and donation to 500 families. The support and encouragement pushed the trip to raise more than Php 400,000!
We would like to thank Right Start for connecting us to the communities there. They will be going back to start phase 2- rebuilding shelter, church and child friendly spaces. They will also have relief and recovery seminars. If you are interested to go or fund this next mission, please do contact us at +639178874278.
Watching the news or even stories from people who already went does not compare to seeing the wrath of Yolanda ourselves. The destruction of the airport was a reminder of what the whole area went through. As we traveled for two hours to Cananga, we saw flattened areas- trees, houses, churches, schools gone. It was truly heart breaking to witness these. How can a storm do such?
We partnered with Zion Community Church who has 120 sites in the Philippines. Thanks to the assistance of their National Director, Rev. Elmer Surigao, we were able to coordinate and organize this trip well. The first church was partly damaged- the roof and side structures disappeared. We divided the kids and the mothers into two of their floors. The photos below are the art workshops supervised by 5 of our team members. The kids were all participative and eager to learn. This was truly a blessing for us.
Ate Kathy Villar who has a background in advertising and promotions, took the challenge of leading this team. She conceptualized and implemented the box art which pushes skill, patience and creativity. We also did origami. The kids can now make 3 kinds of animals with just paper.
As we waited for our donation to arrive, the group did a series of impromptu activities including a bring me a person game by Kuya Harvard. This enabled the kids to show their talents by performing in front. Some of the persons called were singer, barker, statue and dancer. Ate KC shared the Christmas story. Ate Lilibeth initiated singing. We also distributed coloring books and stickers given by Ate Desiree Uy.
The day came to an end with heavy lunch and donations for each kid and their family. Their eyes lit up and smiles were wide. Our expressions were twice as happy. We are indeed very thankful for this opportunity. We will be posting 4 more sets of photos- life skills for Canange, kids workshop for Jaro, life skills for Jaro and sites in Leyte.
