Written by: Kuya Justin Regino, Core Member
For the past two decades, Novartis Philippines has been searching for more innovative ways to address society’s most challenging healthcare issues. Everyday, its employees and stakeholders work hard to achieve the company’s mission of improving and extending people’s lives. But last June 20, 2018, Novartis chose to create value for others by doing something different. The company and their employees from all over the country gathered together to celebrate and share their blessings with the students of Kamuning Elementary School.
Located in Scout Torillo Quezon City, Kamuning Elementary School has committed to provide quality education to produce morally upright Filipino citizens since 1939. It houses 60 teachers and hundreds of students from preparatory to elementary level. For our Wednesday event, our 300 volunteers were joined by 150 kids from grades 3 and 4 to form U! Happy’s biggest partnership event this year.
The celebration started at 10 am and was held in the school’s covered court. To start, our kids were asked to form 15 groups with 10 members each – a mixture of five boys and five girls. They were joined by our out-going volunteers who excitedly introduced themselves to our kids. Likewise, the kids were very eager to meet their new Ate’s and Kuya’s as they showed off their skills by dancing to the tune of Bboom Bboom, a popular Korean dance craze.
The first activity of the morning was a game called “Instagram Stories”. For each round, our host, Kuya Harvard, will give a scene that must be acted out by our groups, such as a hospital scene, birthday party, beach party and a restaurant. This game tests the creativity and teamwork of our participants, as they strategize on how to use different props and delegate tasks to create a scene within a few seconds. After four rounds of fun and laughter, groups 1, 3, 11, 13 won one round each through their all-out acting which captured the eyes of our judges.
The second activity was a Wooden 3D Puzzle Toy workshop led by Ate Iza, a core member of U!Happy. For this workshop, each kid was given either a plane or train puzzle. As Ate Iza demonstrates the assembly procedure, our volunteers would help our kids construct their own puzzle vehicle. This activity aims to teach the skill of following directions and abstract reasoning through puzzle-making to our students. After completing the wooden toy, the kids added colours and decorations for a more personal touch to their project.
The third activity was a Bunny Stuffed Toy workshop led by Ate Bianca, U!Happy’s art workshop facilitator. Using a sock, foam, and art materials, Ate Bianca showed our kids how to make a stuffed toy rabbit. This activity is designed to teach the lesson of caring for our environment through creative ways such as making something productive out of recycled items. Just like the wooden toy, the sock bunny is made through the combined effort of our kids and volunteers. This will also serve as a remembrance of the event for the students of Kamuning Elementary School.
After the series of activities, it was now time to treat our participants to lunch. Our volunteers from Novartis prepared food from every Filipino kid’s favourite restaurant – a Jollibee meal consisting of their signature Chicken Joy, Jolly Hotdog and Jolly Spaghetti. The day was concluded with a group photo of our 450 participants as our kids gave hugs of gratitude and farewell to our volunteers.
It was very inspiring to see how a company like Novartis Philippines is able to find time and resources to create value in a different way, apart from the already difficult challenges of the healthcare and business industry. Our volunteers showed us a holistic approach to healthcare, where apart from the physical; there is a spiritual connection in health that is vital in every human being. In our everyday lives, we encounter so much fear, scarcity, doubt and anger everywhere around us that it is hard to care for others apart from ourselves. But just as Novartis and their employees exemplified in their event with our kids, true spiritual health can be achieve by filling our lives with gratitude, happiness and a sense of contribution for other people.
