“Embracing Hope: A Journey of Service and Growth with Childhope Philippines”
Ako si Carlo, at isa akong estudyante ng UP Diliman, graduating from the College of Mass Communication by the end of this year. My group and I have just completed our community engagement project with Childhope Philippines for our NSTP-CWTS class. I would like to take this chance to thank all those in the community that we were able to meet, most especially the staff who guided us in our implementation every step of the way.
Since entering UP, time management and academic load became a severe challenge, made only harder by the onset of the pandemic last 2020. Whereas in high school I was able to devote a lot of my time to volunteer works such as student-teaching, youth ministry, and outreach programs, I found myself having little to no time to sustain these as a college student, so much so that I put off taking my CWTS class until my final year. I echo the sentiments of my groupmates that mounting this project alongside the transition to on-site classes has been one of my most challenging experiences this semester. This makes me all the more thankful for Childhope Philippines: in being so accommodating and supportive, this challenge that we at first saw as intimidating was made incredibly fruitful and rewarding. I am happy to share that our experience of bringing hope in our own simple way was most definitely worth it in the end.
To share a little bit about our project: apart from assisting as tutors for Childhope Philippines’ consultation day and implementing an art learning session for the children, we were tasked with creating a simple 3-minute audio-visual presentation to share our experience with potential volunteers in the future. As a MasComm student, I was excited to be given this opportunity to put my production skills to use in advocacy/volunteer work.