WHD Celebration: In Our Own Little Way

It's a great sunny day to start the World Humanitarian Day which we celebrate every 19th of August to honor humanitarian actors who continues to risk their lives in order to bring the cause to those who are in great need.  It is also a commemoration day of the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad where twenty-two people lost their lives including, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. So, do you want to know how we celebrated this day?

Candies w/WHD Stickers

The day before, I informed my friends via facebook status of my plan and that is to give random people some candies with a WHD sticker on it. I actually received some help from my Singaporean friends when they sponsored 200 pesos which abled me to purchase 6 Additional Candy bags. (Maraming Salamat Po!). With the help of my brother Leo, I was able to finish putting stickers on 800 candy pieces before I went to our City Plaza to start the Candy Event at 10AM! :)

Me, Ben, Hanna and Kaye

 After around an 8-minute jeepney ride, I finally arrived at our destination -  City Plaza where Hanna, Kaye , and Ben came to join me in sharing simple joys to random people we meet on the street and greeting them with a smile - Happy World Humanitarian Day! If you were the stranger that we meet on the street and tried to give you some candies, would you accept them? And truly, there's a big difference between their reactions. There were some who asked us about what "WHD Is" and some just simply ignored us (deadma). We went inside business establishment to promote this day and it was FUN-FUN-FUN for the four of us. Hearing them saying thank you and seeing them smile is for us a great milestone in promoting awareness by doing random acts of kindness to others - even to strangers.

Maam Evelyn, Sir Ron and Me.

From the City Plaza we walked all the way to Trendline (A Business establishment) and before we ran out of candies we encountered Sir Ronaldine and Maam Evelyn who were volunteers of the Department of Social Welfare and Develpment  (DSWD) (with International Organization for Migration (IOM) ) as Camp Managers handling the evacuation centers. At the end of the trail, we found humanitarian actors whom we have worked with for more than six months now. The two of them are the few of those humanitarian actors who wakes up early, goes to the ground to check on their Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and even goes beyond what is required of them to pursue service for the many.

My experiences in life has taught me that the best things in life cannot be bought and it is freely given away - just like love - it can't be forced. Maybe in this age of time that we are living, receiving a candy may not matter to them . But , may those candies reminds us that back when we still were kids. These were the simple joys that kept us happy and satisfied. It stopped our tears from falling and may it reach to everyone that we may always continue to share simple joys especially to the treasured people in our lives. It doesn't need to be an expensive gift but just a thought: The candies we always carry with us are the sweet words of "Thank you." , I'm Sorry." and "I love you.". HAPPY WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY EVERYONE! 

"Doing something good (big or small), somewhere, for someone else.".