LCP Rogel C. Cacdac, Rotary Club of Cavite Metro
Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Cavite Metro were aware that this pandemic has greatly affected everyone. Irrespective of status in life, gender and ages whether you are old or young. What we do know is that among those vulnerable to have hard time in understanding this present situation and what really this pandemic has done are these school age children. These young children who at this point and at this time of the year should have been playfully, joyfully, freely roaming around and excitedly studying at school. But they are NOT! With the limited mobility due to health and safety protocols imposed by our government, these children have been confined to our homes, doing distance learning whether online or modular mode of education.
These young schooling children’s welfare has been on top of the minds of Rotarians of Cavite Metro. Aligning this concern to one of our areas of focus of service: Basic Education & Literacy and Peace Building & Conflict Prevention.
We have come up that in our own little way, we may spark hope anew for these affected children. We further thought that as simple as gift-giving to select pupils will be a feasible and worthy undertaking. We have identified beneficiaries of Grade 1 to Grade 6 from Don Galo Elementary School where most students were children of fisherfolk’s within the coastal areas of Paranaque. We have partnered further with Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Paranaque Sub-station, along with PCGA 103rd Squadron to assist us in the turnover of One Hundred Fifty (150) sets of basic school supplies enclosed in Plastic envelope consisting of notebooks, pencils, eraser, scissor, sharpener, intermediate pads and crayons.
In consideration and compliance of health and safety protocols, we were not able to arrange meeting the children in person but instead we hand over this simple gifts to Mr. Aljhune S. Marquez the Brigada Eskwela & Adopt-A-School Program Coordinator of Don Galo Elementary School who were very grateful and appreciative of our presence. Their team said that they are so looking forward of the happy faces of those children as a gesture of their gratitude as soon as each of them will receive our simple gifts.
We have also donated two (2) sacks of rice to our men in uniform (PCG) as our token of appreciation for their assistance and support in conduct of this activity.
This act of giving might be trivial. Again, considering the thought of one happy smile, one spark of hope might be achieved. That no matter how this pandemic has changed these children’s new way of learning, one thing is sure: that little gifts reminded them that somebody cares about them, and we at Rotary does, and that they should keep on going and most importantly, never stop learning.
A spark of hope is all that they need. And hopefully, Rotarians of Cavite Metro where service is our source of fulfilment and happiness have delivered that message.
As always, RCCM Yes We Can!