Having Fun For A Cause

19 October 2011

OVER DINNER recently with my high school batchmates, Sonny [president, USTHS Batch 71 Alumni Association] was saying that we have been helping out Cottolengo Filipino for almost two years now.

This got me thinking, wow, has it been that long? Because when I look back to what we have been doing here in the association, I can only remember having fun.

We play bingo to raise funds for them but it’s the laughter and the camaraderie that come to mind.

We find time from our busy professional lives to visit the kids in Montalban, Rizal, where Cottolengo Filipino is located, and all I remember are the kids’ smiles, so poignant and sincere; and their warm gibberish, which my heart has learned to understand over time. Definitely, I donot mind the long trip going there or the early morning wakeup that goes with it.

                      Photo by RANDY ORDONEZ      

But let me tell you about Cottolengo Filipino. This is a home of deprived, abandoned and orphaned children with special needs. Quite a mouthful, but this means that these kids are not your usual street-smart children you see begging around, who despite lack of bath, are physically complete. They are not also those kids you would easily want to adopt on Christmas day. These are physically challenged kids whose special needs include medicines, hospitalization, physical therapy and special education.

Cottolengo Filipino is a non-government organization run by the congregation of the Sons of Divine Providence Congregation. Its sole purpose is to provide a home – and the possibility of rehabilitation – for the most poor, abandoned, surrendered and neglected children with physical and mental disabilities. And when we met them a couple of years back, they were really in need of financial assistance.

Looking back, I have come along way from that person two years ago, who felt uneasy looking at the pictures of the kids in an album passed around by Mina, a trustee of the Cottolengo Filipino Board, who introduced us to the NGO. I remember getting a little bit anxious in anticipation of our first visit.

Today, I am more comfortable around these kids and I am happy that our alumni association has chosen them to be one of our advocacies. I would like to believe that we have contributed a great deal to their daily needs. But, more than the monetary, we have developed a beautiful friendship with them.

It has been very inspiring to know the people behindCottolengo Filipino. Of course, there’s Fr. Julio, who is always smiling and mild-mannered, most especially to the kids, even if to tell them that they have had enough juice.

                   Photo by RANDY ORDONEZ

There’s Jo Ann, who is part of the staff and, judging from her smile, she likes what she does and is very proud of the progress – no matter how slow – the kids are making. You would think she could have chosen another job outside these four walls but no, she is happy with it and shares interesting anecdotes about the kids.

And there’s the rest of the staff, some of them volunteers, who provide a sense of family to the kids. They cooktheir meals and feed them, take care of them and the kids look up to them as parents because when any of the staff tell some kid to settle or sit down, he does.

And aside from Mina, there’s Benz and Girlie, her fellow trustees in the Cottolengo Filipino Board, who share their time and resources.

Aside fromCottolengo Filipino, USTHS Batch 71 Alumni Association has other projects, including GawadKalingain Lucena City and, of course, our alma mater, the UST High School.

One night several years ago and for want of something to do, I decided to join my batchmatesin Sangkalan, a bar and restaurant owned by Hanee, a fellow batchmate, and reconnect with them. Well, I didn’t just feel some semblance of high schoollife all over again. I would say that since that reconnection, doing things for a cause has never been more fun.