Written by Board Member, Ate Charmain Tan
We visited the UNO kids once again in Manila to celebrate Ate Kathrine’s birthday. Once a year we celebrate our birthdays and we are thankful for another blessed year. We are reminded to give to the world the gifts of love and compassion. Ate Katherine does regular outreach activities and have visited other beneficiaries like Virlanie. This year she turned 22 and she invited her friends from work to spend their morning with these energetic group of children. As accountants and lawyers from PwC / Isla Lipana, we are very grateful for these volunteers for spending their day with us despite their busy schedules.
It is always fun to see the smiling kids of UNO who never runs out of energy. They are very close to one another as they know each other pretty well. They would spend the afternoons playing with each other as they all live nearby. Our first event with them was in 2012 when we brought them aboard MV Logos Hope when she docked in Manila. It is a ship that houses a library of over 6,000 books. I was reminded of that event because one of the mothers in today’s activities told me she and her daughter participated in that event four years ago. She remembers it very well because it is the first U! Happy event she and her daughter joined. I felt happy to know that after all these years it’s still one of the experiences she always remembers. It also shows how much these children are endeared to us.
We started the day by introducing the volunteers to the kids. We then grouped everyone and they were able to get to know one another by talking about their favorite Pinoy game. The most popular ones are tagu-taguan, patintero, chinese garter, habulan, and jackstone. The teams also came up with group names like Team Love, Train to Busan, Team Piko, Team Happiness, and Team Curry. We had several game activities lined up for the day. We first played the Shape It Up game. The team members were to form the specified shape without letting go of each others hands. It was a challenge to move around without letting go. They made shapes like star, heart, christmas tree, candy cane, square, and others. With the help of the ates and kuyas Team Curry won the game.
We then played the Egg Toss game. All the kids were blindfolded and each were given an egg. The volunteers stood at the other end and the kids had to toss the eggs while the volunteers tried to catch as many as they could. At first the kids were very excited and they all tossed the eggs at the same time. Since they were blindfolded the eggs flew everywhere. We were able to save some eggs and had to redo the game from the beginning. The kids were very energetic and the volunteers were laughing and shouting as they tried catching the eggs. Some of the kids were throwing them really hard while the others threw them directly upwards and the eggs ended up hitting the ceiling. It was so much fun watching everything laughing and cheering for one another.
Next was Pass the Charades game. We gave an animal to the first person of each group and he had to pass the message by acting it out to the next person. Then the next person passed it to the next and so on until it reached the end of the line. The last person would run to the front and tried to guess the animal. It was funny as the animal seemed to change as it reached the last person. The kids would try to copy the action but they keep changing it making it hard for the last person to guess the correct answer. Some of the guesses were really far from the correct answer.
Last was the Hep Hep Hooray game conducted by our birthday celebrant Ate Kathrine. When she pointed the mic towards a person, he has to do either of the two actions: clap for Hep Hep or raise both arms for Hooray. The sequence was Hep Hep first then followed by Hooray. The players who got it wrong keeps getting eliminated from the game until one player was left as the winner. The kids played first then the volunteers played next. It was fun to see as some of them get confused and ended up losing the game.
After the fun-filled morning the kids got to enjoy their ice cream and lunch. The children, headed by the cheerful Kennon, did a dance number for the volunteers. We then gave the prizes to the winners of the games. Ate Katherine and her friends went around and gave their gifts to the kids. She gave them back packs filled with goodies. The kids checked out their back packs and happily hung them over their shoulders. Before the day ended we sang a Happy Birthday song for Ate Kathrine and the kids hugged and thanked the ates and kuyas for spending their time with them.
