Sunday, December 28, 2008

THE DAY ASHIA PLAYED AS A CHILD AGAIN


By Armand Dean Nocum
Jungolf Parent

“I wish I was born as poor as them … at least I could play all day.’’
This innocent remark from my eight-year-old daughter just floored me a day before Christmas when I was driving her home from practice at a nearby golf driving range in Quezon City.
We had then spotted several children knocking at car windows asking for food. Seeing them, I told Ashia Marie just how lucky she was to have food to eat, a good school; and a family that could provide for her needs.
Ashia, who had been regularly training for golf competitions since age five, told me that she longs to play with children of informal settlers who live near our house in Don Antonio Heights, Quezon City.
At first, I scolded her for not knowing how to be contented and thankful to God for her small blessings. But later at home, it dawned on me that my little girl is slowly losing her childhood for the dream of bringing honor to the country by winning in junior golf tournaments abroad.
After showing interest in golf at age two, Ashia had spent most of her childhood in driving ranges and fairways than malls or playgrounds. Her life since then had revolved mostly around school, tutorials and golf.
Unlike other children who can rest after school, Ashia is driven straight to the golf course to practice before returning home to study. This happens about three times a week. Other junior golfers do this daily.
On weekends, she is carried off to the car still asleep as early as 4-5 AM so she could make it to golf tournaments out of Metro Manila. And after the awarding ceremonies and braving the SLEX or NLEX traffic, she arrives home about 6 PM. Her weekends see her leaving house before daybreak and returning when the sun has set.
Mostly, she does not mind this kind of schedule because she enjoys the game she fell in love with long before she learned how to talk. She was calling it “dolf” at two years old. She was born cute and with light complexion, but constant exposure to the sun had turned her dark.
So far, golf enabled her at six to qualify and proudly bring the country’s flag in the 2007 Callaway Junior World Golf Championship in San Diego, California. Although caddy errors and numerous penalty strokes caused her to slide to No. 5 at the end of the tournament, Ashia still made the country proud by making a hole-in-one in the prestigious golf tournament.
I cannot get mad enough or fire the caddy because the nervous and error-prone caddy was me.
In spite of me and in the hands of local caddies, Ashia rebounded by making two more holes-in-one in a span of two weeks in two tournaments here. For making three holes in one by age seven and in a span of 10 months, friends now call her the “Muslim Ace” (her mother Annora is a Tausug).
This Christmas and with more time out of school, Ashia can’t help but miss the children she used to play with before she got serious in golf.
So, on Christmas Day and after she helped distribute bags of food, toys and grocery items to kids coming from informal homes, we allowed Ashia to spend the whole afternoon playing with them. I promised to allow her to play with them some more in the succeeding holidays.
But after resuming her golf practice and playing in tournaments after Christmas, Ashia has yet to play with her old friends whose carefree lives she envies.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Diether Ocampo Has a Heart for Kids in Mindanao



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.