Written by: Ate Chynna Salazar, Core Member
“If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life.”
One of the greatest joys in life comes from helping and sharing lives with others, even in the simplest of ways. Ate Maria has been giving back to the community on her 18th birthday, and every yesr since, it has been tradition. On the morning of the 25th of March, ate Maria, together with her batchmates from the University of Santo Tomas, did just that and decided to celebrate her 20th birthday with the kids of ECPAT and some of the kids from the community of Botocan, which was hit by a huge fire last March 6.
ECPAT Philippines is a global network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography, and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. 11 survivors from ECPAT and 14 kids from Botocan joined us for a morning of games, art and fellowship, and around 30 volunteers who are all Education majors from the University of Santo Tomas.
The days started with the ates and kuyas introducing themselves to the kids and sharing what their favorite games to play were when they were kids. Then, they were asked to join the kids who were divided in 5 groups. Once the ates and kuyas were scattered and had their groups, they interacted with the kids and had to come up with a name for their group. The groups were Team Powerpuff Girls, Team Stargazer, Team Solomon, Team Wow Magic, and Team Superpower Boys and Superpower Girls.
After getting to know each other better, the games started. The first game was a Hula Hoop grouping game, which takes a twist on the Boat is Sinking game. Each group had one hula hoop and when the host says a certain category, the people in that category must enter the hula hoop. Everyone got very competitive. The next game also involved the hula hoop but this time, they actually had to use it to see who could hula hoop the longest. One representative for each group had to show of their hula hooping skills. In the end, team Solomon and team Powerpuff Girls won the games.
After the wild and active time the kids had with the games, they had time to relax and cool down while ate Maria and her friends conducted an art workshop. They taught the kids how to make and write letters and gave them stickers for designs. Most of the kids gave ate Maria birthday cards.
After the workshop, they had a group photo holding up their letters.
The kids from ECPAT gave a dance performance for everyone after the activities and fter the dance, it was lunch time. Everyone njoyed a meal of chicken fingers and rice while mingling with each other.
After eating, they performed one last dance number before ate Maria gave out her gifts. She gave everyone school supplies and slippers. The group also collected clothes to donate to the fire victims of Botocan. The kids were eager to re eive their gifts and hugged their ates and kuyas goodbye.
It is like magic watching these kids light up and smile as they enjoyed the time they had with ate Maria and her friends.
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