Give Books to Children in the Philippines

In the few months since our last update, we’ve been sending out thousands of books to various islands of the Philippines that had recently been visited by horrific calamities, both natural (Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Visayas) and caused by man (armed conflict in Zamboanga in Mindanao).

But for this update, we thought we’d highlight the activities by one of our partners – the Project Banig Zamboanga, a volunteer story-telling group who worked to provide child survivors and refugees of the armed conflict with psychosocial therapy and healing sessions.

The following is a report we received from them, with minor edits only for brevity and clarity. As you read through it, know that your support and belief in this project, and power of books and art to heal and change lives for the better is making a real difference in the lives of many children. For most, the respite may be fleeting. But we like to think of the books as ripples caused by a small stone thrown in a pond - you never know how wide a path they will travel.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!!! 

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Last November 18, 2013, the second wave of Project Paghilom: Basic Psychosocial Intervention for Displaced Children in Zamboanga City commenced. 

Together with the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Guidance and Counselling Office and Save the Children, 28 facilitators were trained to conduct the 3-week psychosocial intervention for children displaced by the conflict. 

A total of 1,853 children would be served by these facilitators. These children would range from ages 2 years old to 17 years old.  Most of them came from indigenous tribes (Tausugs and Badjaos) and most are muslims. They all came from the 5 baranggays most affected by the stand-off.  Most of their houses were burned to the ground, so most of them had been staying in evacuation centers for more than 3 months.

As part of the pilot training,150 copies of “Nadia and the Blue Stars” were distributed to students of Talon-Talon High School.

Prior to giving them a copy of the book, Nadia was read to them and the Basic Psychosocial module that accompanied the book was conducted.  During the session, one participant (Melany) kept crying as she was doing the activity.  When she calmed down, she shared to the group that she was very angry at the MNLF and soldiers because of the havoc and destruction they caused.  Because of them, their houses got burned down and she had to bear the discomfort of living in evacuation centers. 

As the trainee facilitator, guided by a counselor, talked to her further and explained to her the similarities between her and Nadia, Melany started to calm down.  In a drawing activity that followed, Melany started to color her family blue.  She said that, “Maskin cosa pasa, hinde gad yo deha mio pamilya.” (No matter what happens, I will never leave my family behind.) 

She also shared to the group during the last session that she promised to be more like Nadia, hopeful and someone who would never give up. “Kailangan natin maging tulad ni Nadia kasi siya ang nagsysymbolize ng pag-asa.  Hindi tayo pwede mawalan ng pag-asa,” she said. (We need to be like Nadia who symbolizes hop.  We cannot lose hope.)

Another striking comment was made by Al-rashid, 16 years old.  After reading the book, he commented, “Wala talaga nananalo sa gera.  Lahat talo. Muslim. Kristyano. Lahat biktima.” (No one wins in war.  Everyone loses.  Muslims. Christians. Everyone’s a victim.)

Tetet, 6 years old, told her facilitator that she wants to be like Nadia.  She wants to be a gardener.

After giving the books to the children of Talon-Talon High School, the facilitators and the recipients made a promise.  They promised each other that they will retell the story of Nadia to their friends and families.

The second wave of Project Paghilom created a tight bond between the evacuees and the facilitators.  There are still wounds too painful and too deep to heal, but the survivors have started the process of healing. 

It is the hope of Project Banig and the whole of Zamboanga that we completely heal from the wounds - physical, emotional, and psychological - brought about by the siege.

Links:

• Read the story of Nadia and the Blue Stars.

We thought we might take this opportunity to thank you all first, again, for your continuing support for our project. And, we want to show you all how this support has and will continue to make a difference in the lives of thousands of children throughouth the Philippines.

To date, we've worked with various individuals, nonprofits, government agencies and private corporations to give away close to 30,000 books! That's 10 times what we originally were aiming for, and it all would not have been possible without each and everyone of you.

It all started with your support, quite frankly... Because of your initial and continuing participation, we managed to generate concrete success stories (as we've highlighted in our past updates) and considerable interest from other organizations and corporations who were eager to support campaigns to promote children's literacy and a love for books.

Your belief in our project, and the success that we've had with you, has also enhanced the project in one other significant way.

By highlighting the book giving initiatives, we were able to attract grant funding from the Prince Claus Fund to commission a module that would complement one of our books, "Nadia and the Blue Stars". This module would allow facilitators to use the books as material to help children deal with the trauma of being displaced by war, typhoon, earthquakes and other calamities, which unfortunately is an all too frequent challenge in the Philippines.

It turned out to be very timely - you may have heard that armed conflict erupted in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines forcing tens of thousands of families to flee their homes. Working with "Operation Banig" (a local organization) and the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, "Nadia and the Blue Stars" and the module were translated into "chabacano" (the local dialect), and a few weeks ago, a group of facilitators in Mindanao were trained in the use of both books and module.

Last October 16-30, they then conducted a first wave of psychosocial therapy sessions for 600 children in five evacuation centers in Zamboanga City. According to the facilitators, "Nadia and the Blue Stars" was particularly impactful on the older children ranging from ten years old and up.   The story helped them in processing and expressing their emotions, and helped them realize that there can be and is hope amidst fear and turmoil.  

In the coming month, we will send another 4000 books (at least) that will be given out to 4000 children in other evacuation centers across Mindanao. We should also point out that for many of these children, these books will not only be a welcome respite - they will be the very first books they actually get to own!

As a parallel activity, two weeks ago, CANVAS presented Nadia and the Blue Stars in a story-telling session to 200 children of the Land Bank of the Philippines’ employees at their Halloween party on October 25, 2013 at the Land Bank Main Office. Children ages two to 12 listened to the story as its illustrations were projected on a screen.

After the story-telling session, CANVAS facilitators explained the relationship of Nadia and the Blue Stars to war and conflict and how it may reflect experiences of their fellow Filipino children in Zamboanga, Mindanao. The children were then asked to write a short letter – or create a drawing – for their Zamboanga counterparts. The letters and drawings are to be enclosed with CANVAS’ donations of the book to Zamboanga. Younger children were assisted by their guardians in writing their messages.

In this sense, the books - because of your support - not only help those in need, but also help to teach other children in more fortunate environments about empathy and the value of caring.

Finally, as mentioned, we started this project by aiming to give away 3,000 books. We are now dreaming much much bigger - we hope to give away 1 million books in the next five years. We don't know if we can actually do this - but we do know that with your help and support, we have a very good chance of succeeding. We hope you will continue to support and join us in this journey.

We promise to keep you posted on all developments. 

But for now, again, we thank you again... for everything!

Links:

• Read the story of "Nadia and the Blue Stars" here.
• Learn about our 1 million books for 1 million children campaign.