I was watching a year-end special on ABS-CBN featuring great Filipinos in 2006. What made me shed tears were their features on Filipina philanthropists. What is amazing is that these Filipinas were not surnamed Zobels or Ayala or Lhuilliers, but they are the ordinary Dela Cruzes. When you look at them, you know they don't live in Forbes park, or in any posh condominium in Makati.
One was even a domestic helper from Japan, also a mother. While working in Japan, she noticed an encyclopedia in the trash and took it. She said that the book looked unused and that the receipt was still inside the book. She then remembered her poor countrymen who lacked reading materials, and decided to salvage all usable books that she would see in the garbage. It has become her passion, and it eventually became her second job to housekeeping. She looked for a cargo company who would be willing to ship her books to her hometown in Iloilo, and found one run by a Filipino. She established her foundation and called it "Pinokyo Foundation". With her work, she was awarded and granted 4 million pesos to invest in her philanthropy. Her employers noticed that she has become busy with her foundation work, so they asked her to go back home, and even offered to pay for her plane fare. She willingly accepted and knew that it was meant to be.
Though she is now based here in the Philippines, she still helps. She has a little canteen where she donates a peso for every transaction that she makes. She uses the money to help her poor neighbors.
There are others featured who started to put up a building where they will help prevent drug use in their poor neighborhood, by keeping them busy and educating them about drug use. There is another one who put up a center for children who are abused by their parents.
These are the Dela Cruzes. They are not the Zobels nor any other Spanish-sounding names. Do we still have to wait until we become rich in order to help my less fortunate countrymen? No, I don't think so.
One was even a domestic helper from Japan, also a mother. While working in Japan, she noticed an encyclopedia in the trash and took it. She said that the book looked unused and that the receipt was still inside the book. She then remembered her poor countrymen who lacked reading materials, and decided to salvage all usable books that she would see in the garbage. It has become her passion, and it eventually became her second job to housekeeping. She looked for a cargo company who would be willing to ship her books to her hometown in Iloilo, and found one run by a Filipino. She established her foundation and called it "Pinokyo Foundation". With her work, she was awarded and granted 4 million pesos to invest in her philanthropy. Her employers noticed that she has become busy with her foundation work, so they asked her to go back home, and even offered to pay for her plane fare. She willingly accepted and knew that it was meant to be.
Though she is now based here in the Philippines, she still helps. She has a little canteen where she donates a peso for every transaction that she makes. She uses the money to help her poor neighbors.
There are others featured who started to put up a building where they will help prevent drug use in their poor neighborhood, by keeping them busy and educating them about drug use. There is another one who put up a center for children who are abused by their parents.
These are the Dela Cruzes. They are not the Zobels nor any other Spanish-sounding names. Do we still have to wait until we become rich in order to help my less fortunate countrymen? No, I don't think so.
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