The goodness of Filipinos never ceases to amaze me. It seems doing good attracts not only good, but great people. Since starting our A-Book-Saya Group book-donation project, we have time and again met people whose actions brought my faith back to the Filipino people.
This was exactly what I felt in meeting actor and businessman Diether “Diet” Ocampo who it turned out has his KIDS Foundation which has the same concern as ours’. So, here’s a press release I wrote about that happy union of forces between our two groups.
PRESS RELEASE
DIET SECURES BOOKS FOR KIDS IN ABU SAYYAF LAIRS
Actor and businessman Diether “Diet” Ocampo facilitated the donation of 84 boxes of imported books to be distributed to schoolchildren in suspected lairs of the Abu Sayyaf in Zamboanga City and Basilan.
Ocampo, founder of Kabataang Inyong Dapat Suportahan (KIDS) Foundation, recently secured the books from the International School Manila (ISM) which donated high school books, audio and video education materials, maps and used library materials for Mindanao kids.
“We want Muslim and Christian kids in war-torn areas in Mindanao to also benefit from our effort to distribute books to a million children nationwide,” Diether said after turning the books over to the A-Book-Saya Group (ASG) book-donation program.
The ASG program, started by Christian-Muslim couple Armand and Annora Sahi Nocum, aims to flood Mindanao with books to stop the rise of child warriors by making kids in troubled areas pick books over guns; and education over terrorism.
Ocampo’s KIDS Foundation has teamed up with the Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation (the corporate social arm of Filway Marketing, Inc.) to launch the Isang Milyong Aklat, Isang Milyong Pangarap (One Million Books, One Million Dreams) program.
Mrs. Nocum, a Tausug, said the ISM books would help in the ASG’s plan to put up a library known as the Kristiano-Islam (Kris) Peace and Harmony Library and which will be set up in a suspected Abu Sayyaf lair with a mixed Christian-Muslim populace in the hinterlands of Zamboanga City .
“We decided to put up a library because children complain that the libraries that received our books are closed in the evening or weekends when they need them more. For areas where there are no telephone connections, no Internet or computer shops, the library is the only real source of information for those doing research after school has closed,” said Annora Nocum.
She said ASG also plans to secure from donors second-hand computers and printers and wireless Internet roaming devices to hook up war-torn kids to the world.
Prospective donors could drop by the Nocums’ Satti Grill House outlets at SM-Fairview Food Court , Quezon City and at M.H. del Pilar corner Padre Faura, Manila with their books; while those wishing to donate old computers may call 3393732, 09195897879 and 09175208013; or log in at www.sattisfaction.blogspot.com.
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Reference:
Armand/ Ann Nocum
Tels. 7993745/09195897879/ 09175208013
Dec. 5, 2008
Photo Caption 1:
Diet Secures Books for kids victimized by war in Mindanao: KIDS Foundation head Diether Ocampo standing with (left to right) A-Book-Saya Group’s Armand Dean Nocum and June Frances E. Hamoy and Roxanne Oquendo, office manager and program manager of KIDS foundation, respectively, following the turn over of 84 boxes of books from the International School Manila to the A-Book-Saya Group book-donation project. Book donors may call 3393732, 09195897879 and 09175208013; or log in at www.sattisfaction.blogspot.com.
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