Making the world a better place
Each one of us can come from our own space to make this world better. One group challenges the youth to dream! And why not? Dreams propel us to create our future. So we ask, can someone with nothing rise to something, making his or her life worthwhile? It’s a resounding yes!
I thought this was an interesting topic to write about, this Dream Project focused on the youth at the lower poverty line. Here, they are caught in the cycle of survival. This is where dreams matter the most: to fuel a passion to push them forward and out of their poverty, their low self-esteem, lack of passion and opportunities.
How can we inspire passion in our youth? How can we inspire them to love their very own?
Negros Occidental has the Dream Project where a Dream Caravan promoting volunteerism has moved through three provinces. The project is focused on 3rd and 4th year students from both public and private schools with the objective to inspire them to dream on behalf of our country. It is a project that strives to build nationalism, and the push to keep that nationalist spirit alive.
Launched in 2013, the Dream project has been part of the Provincial Tourism and Department of Education curriculum development with 37 caravans reaching 37 high schools. The volunteering program had “Youth Imagineers” in an Imagineering Youth Camp going around and inspiring innovation in the youth. These included youth assemblies that highlighted socially relevant projects, relief operations that used social media and a social “Dream Expo” that pushed concepts of social innovation. The “Dream Expo” was again recently concluded in Manila and is now being replicated in Bicol and Culion.
Meanwhile, all the way from 16 cities of the US and Canada, 90 volunteers from Delta Airlines met up with their local counterparts and made their way through the scorching heat to build homes for underprivileged families in Bistekville 4, Barangay Culiat, Quezon City. Aligned with the Habitat for Humanity International, some Filipino families were relocated from danger areas of heavy flooding as Delta volunteers accomplished two weeks worth of work in just four days. Delta also opened the volunteer international build opportunity to its SkyMiles members and through an online auction, some SkyMiles actually got the chance to join in.
We continue the rehabilitation of lives hit by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which has been instrumental in seeing humanity wishing to reach out and share. Amma is an organization founded and headed by an Indian female spiritual leader and humanitarian who has embraced more than 33 million people across six continents. The very property where she was born, Amrituapuri in India, is headquarters to their worldwide mission, and also a spiritual home for monastic disciples and hundreds of householder devotees. All the residents have dedicated their lives for realizing God and serving the world. Their organization that does humanitarian work and volunteerism is called Embracing the World (EWT). The American wing of ETW, called the Mata Amritanandamayi Center, was one of the first international donors that contributed the amount of $1 million, which will be used for children’s educational needs during this rehabilitation period. Swami Ramakrishnananda Puri, a board director of the M.A. Center personally handed the money over to the Office of the President.
At the International Treinale Congress of the Business and Professional Women Network (BPW) in Jeju, Korea, I accepted on behalf of BPW Ormoc City, the donation of $3,000 given by the BPW Japan Club headed by president Haniwa Natori. The money was then hand-carried by BPW Australia Carol Hanlon to Ormoc, along with $2,910 from BPW International and AUD$600 from BPW Belmont. Carol was on her way there to also oversee a special project helping women with sewing machines, as well as Online Mentoring Programs related to fashion. Also from the BPW International, the profits from the sales of a pop-up MCM luxury bag store owned by our Korean friend and woman-advocate CEO Sung Joo Kim were all earmarked for the Philippines.
Reaching out to make the world a better place always rebounds back to the giver. As Delta marketing head Tiffany Jackson stated, “This journey has been life-changing. I hope the beneficiaries know that they’ve shared as much happiness to us as we hope we shared with them.” In our constantly volatile world, the crisis of the world seeks healing from the strength of not only our generous hearts to reach out, help, sooth, nurture and heal — to say that each person suffering some kind of tragedy is not alone…and that we are all interconnected.
