Kids @ the Museum

CEBU, Philippines -  Some 250 kids from six barangays in Cebu City and one barangay in Lapu-Lapu City converged at the rain-soaked Fort San Pedro grounds last October 30 for the culminating activity of the bigger run of “Kids at the Museum.”

 Dr. Joy Gerra, executive director of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.’s Culture and Heritage focus area, said that “Kids at the Museum” activity happens every October.

 Gerra explained that every weekend for the month of October, children were engaged in various enriching activities such as Filipino games, drawing and painting, performing arts, writing poems/letters and stories, and film showing.

 These activities were carried out in the premises of the participating museums — Casa Gorordo Museum, Fort San Pedro, and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation-Rizal Museum.

 Kids from barangays San Roque, Sto. Niño, Tinago, T. Padilla, Day-as and Tejero in Cebu City and Barangay Tingo in Lapu-Lapu City played games and received their respective awards (and rewards) that afternoon of Oct. 30.

 Categories include tubig-tubig and sungka, takyan and dama as well as tigmo-tigmo (riddles); short story and balak; best drawing and best dancers in a group showdown. The program highlighted the reading of the winning letter penned by a child, addressed to her own mother.

 The “Kids at the Museum” aims to make children appreciate museums as a venue of learning, as well as the richness of the Cebuano culture and heritage.

 Launched in 2007, the “Kids at the Museum” is RAFI’s way of bringing children and museums together in October which is both National Children’s Month and Museums and Galleries Month.

 This is so because RAFI believes that “a confident community begins with a strong sense of identity.”