Written by: Ate Char, U! Happy Officer
It is only three days before Christmas as everyone is getting more excited to celebrate the holidays. We headed to Pasay to visit the kids of Center for Community Transformation (CCT). CCT is composed of several ministers that reach out to street children in the communities. It is a Christian group that focuses on poverty and social injustice. It currently operates in 49 cities all over the Philippines. Waterhope in Gamban Pasay is a collaborative social enterprise that addresses the social needs of its communities. One of its goals is to provide safe, clean, and affordable drinking water to the communities. CCT Waterhope was launched in August 2010.
Today one hundred kids from CCT Pasay welcomed us in their center. It is the company CSR for Ocwen Business Solutions. Ocwen is the largest independent mortgage loan servicer in the United States. The Philippine office is located in Pasay Manila. We were joined by volunteers from Ocwen Philippines. After introducing the volunteers to the kids they joined the different groups of kids. The kids shared things about themselves and the volunteers got to know them better.
It was a full day as we had several activities lined up. We watched a magic show by our magician from the Salamangkero group in the Philippines. He did his popular tricks like colorful scarves coming out from pouches and umbrellas popping out from everywhere. There were doves that flew out and the kids excitedly tried to reach for them. In addition to the magic show the kids also enjoyed a puppet show.
As part of the kids’ learning we did a Financial Literacy Workshop. We did a Bring Me Art activity where the kids had to cut out the items we specified. Each person was given colored papers and scissors. We asked them to “bring” monetary symbols by cutting out the item on the paper. Some of the symbols included money bills, coins, piggy bank, and others. We taught them the different financial tools and imparted the value of saving and working hard. We then gave out piggy banks and coins to each group and asked them to fill up the piggy bank with the coins. The first group that finished fist won the challenge and they got the piggy bank as gifts for being the winers of the challenge.
After all the fun it was time to the kids to enjoy their lunch. Prizes were given to the winners to the group games. Ocwen gave school supplies to each of the hundred kids. In addition to that they also gave a financial donation worth Php 25,000 to the center. To show their support for the cause of U! Happy Events they purchased 75 U! Happy shirts. We thank Ocwen Business Solutions for their generosity and we look forward to more partnerships with them in the future.
