Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
ABSG In the News
Hi guys, here are news stories re our summer activities and programs at the A-Book-Saya Group peace and literacy advocacy. Thanks a lot for all your support.
Peace group helps prevent child soldiers | The Philippine Star News Nation
Peace group helps prevent child soldiers | The Philippine Star News Nation
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Mindanao On Fire
Mindanao is on fire. Apart from the problem of rebellion and terrorism, the area South of the Philippine Archipelago is again burning from the chaos created by the massacre of 57 people, most of them journalists and relatives of a politician.
World attention is again upon us, but for the wrong and very embarrassing reasons. The massacre earned the country the distinction of having the most number of journalists killed in peace time. We have even eclipsed Iraq as the most dangerous place for journalists.
With foreigners not being able to distinguish between Manila and Maguindanao, their instinct would tell them to avoid the Philippines at any cost. There goes the precious investments funds and tourists dollars.
Although the so-called Maguindanao Massacre happened in Mindanao, the whole country suffers in terms of lost business opportunities.
Where do we go from here? Is there no hope for Mindanao? Can we count on the government to help set things rights?
All is not lost but only if we rely on our own initiative to cut the evil cycle of poverty-illiteracy-criminality and terrorism. If we look at the massacre issue, we would realize that it was only illiteracy that helped the Ampatuan clan exploit the ignorance of poor militiamen to carry out the slaughter.
These militiamen would not have been beholden to the Ampatuan clan had they been given a head-start in getting a good education so they can be professionals and businessmen and not be beholden to the patronage and graces of corrupt and powerful clans who provide the militiamen and their families all their economic needs.
What’s more shocking is that at the height of the military operations against the 200 militiamen loyal to the Ampatuans, it was reported that even child soldiers have been employed to help fight law enforcers.
While it is to fight the culture of guns in Mindanao, there is hope in educating the young for them not to take up the criminal activities of their elders. There is need to infuse the culture of books to eradicate the culture of guns and violence brought about by ignorance and poverty in Mindanao.
On this note, I enjoin you all to help our cause to flood Mindanao with books and not with guns. Let us arm Mindanao kids with knowledge so they can fight warlords like the Ampatuans or terrorists groups like the Abu Sayyaf who are aggressively working to get naïve and impoverished children to be their child soldiers.
By the way, if I am writing this after a six months hiatus, I thank an angel in the person of my cousin Olga Natividad who had come along to breathe new life in the cause of helping poor kids attain better life in Mindanao.
Ms Natividad had offered to tap her friends and relatives here and in the US to help the cause of the A-Book-Sayaf Group to help make poor Mindanao kids realize that there is a more stable and prosperous life aside from living through the barrel of a gun.
Thank you all.
Armand Dean Nocum
A-Book-Saya Group
Administrator
Monday, August 17, 2009
AUSTRALIANS DONATE TO A-BOOK-SAYA
Friends, here's a letter my daughter Arizza Ann Nocum, a third year student of the Philippine Scince High School, wrote to Ms Asinas, the angel who linked us up with caring friends from Australia.
Good day, Ms. Asinas!
My name is Arizza, and I am the daughter of Armand Nocum—the man who put up the A-Book-Saya group.
In behalf of him, I would like to extend my gratitude for the books you have given us.
I have just seen the Perth-Manila Book Project blog, and, personally, I congratulate you for having such an impactful campaign. Shaping civil society through books sounds like it requires utmost dedication; but I see that you have been truly successful with the assistance and support of service-oriented individuals from Manila and Perth.
Seeing what your campaign is achieving now, I am sure that you know the value of books, out of all people.
I am 14 years old; and eight or so years ago, the first Harry Potter book came out. My dad bought me the book in order to introduce me to the wonderful world of children’s fiction. True enough, I became engulfed in a world I never thought had existed; but I did not only learn that words and sentences could offer so much to my imagination, I also learned some principles, like how much the youth can do in the name of bravery and selflessness.
If that much can be learned from a single book, you can imagine the positive impact dozens of the books you have donated could make on a child.
Furthermore: with every book you gave us that a child may one day open, we issue a message of thanks. With the possibility that one of the many children who visit our library may someday turn to a principled world of science or math—that he did not know existed—instead of the world of war that right in front of his eyes, you understand that we are indebted to your support for helping us realize our goal.
Last April 6, you may have heard that we celebrated the soft opening of the Kristiyano-Islam Peace Library (KRIS). It was such a delight to see the multitude of Christian and Muslim children at the library that day. They were eagerly checking out the books and tinkering with the computers—in fact, some of them claim to have used a computer for the first time.
In order to sustain that many children in our library the whole summer, we decided to facilitate computer lessons which 120 children have signed up for already. In addition, we promised scholarship grants to 50 children who will be visiting the library at least 25 times. Specifically, we will only be paying for the enrolment fee which is about P500. For those kids who visit less frequently, we will be rewarding them with school materials and older books.
However, about a hundred have promised to visit frequently to get the grant, and we really are in need of assistance.
That is why, in conclusion, we thank you again so much for the books you have given and are planning to give.
May we someday see our efforts into fruition! God Bless, Ms. Asinas!
Arizza
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