The precious child
January 25, 2007 | 12:00am
The insistent tap-tap-tapping on the window panes gets me out of my own reverie. Soulful eyes stare back at me, only the thin glass between us divides us, divides our two different worlds. A street urchin, begging for alms is the common sight I face now, while stuck in traffic. I gently shake my head, a little mournfully as I hold back my heart leaping out in compassionate and pity for the child. I tap back on the window, stilling the pity I feel arising in me. I refuse to give him any money, this way, refusing to be part of a bigger picture where syndicated groups use poverty and the helpless children to gather money. Like friends and family, I choose to give biscuits or food, old clothes when the tap-tap-tapping on the window pane comes my way.
More than a decade back, I made a firm commitment that any help I can give to the less fortunate and especially the children would be through an organized group or charity. This way, funds would go out in a systematic manner where charity becomes part of a more sustainable program to help make other people’s lives better and the world a better place to be in. From one heart reaching out, like minded people come together to form communities and organizations that spur man to go beyond himself. Charity, philanthropy and education are the social fruits of man’s heart willing to uplift our world by helping people. Found at the core of these actions is a major paradigm shift beyond the selfish personal egos towards the urge to help other and in the process, raise the consciousness of the community. Devastation, calamity and wars are the biggest reasons that people are moved beyond themselves for humanitarian purposes.
Of all the causes in the world, none hit closest to the heart than the plight of helpless children. The precious human child, the symbol of the future of our generations and our world becomes one of the most vital of causes to fight for. Countless charities have risen but none more known and popular than one called UNICEF.
UNICEF, the world’s leading child advocacy organization was born out of the ravages of war. Called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF was intended to be a temporary post-war response to aid children left hungry, helpless and homeless by World War II. But it was meant to be more. In 1953, it dropped the words "international" and "emergency" from its name, and was soon known as The United Nation’s Children’s Fund. Today, the organization celebrates its 60th year anniversary working to protect the little ones of our earth. Its anniversary battlecry is "Unite for Children!" It has programs in 190 countries on all the continents of the globe with campaigns to eradicate poverty, disease and literary and to ensure the rights and protection of children.
One of the UNICEF’s first Asian offices was opened in the Philippines in 1948. The first decade focused on health care, with the control and eradication of tuberculosis and leprosy as major goals. The organization also trained community health workers to make immunization programs more effective, while bringing in newer and cheaper drugs. UNICEF has branched out to long term development goals to ensure the welfare and protection, not only of the children but also of their mothers (women). Children in remote barangays and in urban poor communities have been protected from abuse, violence, and exploitation through UNICEF’s support to networks of organized community intervention. As time moves on, the needs of the children seem to escalate even more, mushrooming to all the major issues that can affect a child, from HIV/AIDs, malnutrition due to poverty, lack of safe drinking water and sanitary toilets, natural disasters, and of course, quality education. The darker side of abuse, neglect and exploitation exponentially arises with greater poverty.
UNICEF is funded entirely by voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and government. Many of us know and purchase the UNICEF cards, the most consistent and simplified fundraising project of the agency which is done all over the world. But these cards are mere symbols that challenge each one of us to look beyond ourselves, and try to find a connection to our more altruistic side. While we are not like talented individuals like UNICEF Ambassador of Goodwill Gary Valenciano who donates proceeds of his concerts to UNICEF, we each are in a position to extend help. A minimum of P500 per month may mean almost nothing for many people, and yet would mean giving basic necessities to 40 young children. P1,000 per month will even touch more children.
In an ideal world, we would have no need for a UNICEF. That ideal world would mean a citizenry aware and evolved, conscious of the preciousness of human life and who would possess deep spiritual values to honor it. But we are in a world striving to become ideal, where many of the citizens of the world are still caught in the unconscious grip of the ego’s control, where greed, pride and self-serving directions still rule. In the universal pattern that dictates that Balance will always be achieved in time, UNICEF plays the role of fighting to make the lives of the youngest citizens of the globe more humane. It is an organization that brings conscious action against the unconscious actions of the world.
You are invited to make a conscious choice and be part of this balancing force called UNICEF. Write out a check every month. You won’t event miss out on small change.
For more information, please call UNICEF at (632)901-0100 or visit www.unicef.org/philippines.
More than a decade back, I made a firm commitment that any help I can give to the less fortunate and especially the children would be through an organized group or charity. This way, funds would go out in a systematic manner where charity becomes part of a more sustainable program to help make other people’s lives better and the world a better place to be in. From one heart reaching out, like minded people come together to form communities and organizations that spur man to go beyond himself. Charity, philanthropy and education are the social fruits of man’s heart willing to uplift our world by helping people. Found at the core of these actions is a major paradigm shift beyond the selfish personal egos towards the urge to help other and in the process, raise the consciousness of the community. Devastation, calamity and wars are the biggest reasons that people are moved beyond themselves for humanitarian purposes.
Of all the causes in the world, none hit closest to the heart than the plight of helpless children. The precious human child, the symbol of the future of our generations and our world becomes one of the most vital of causes to fight for. Countless charities have risen but none more known and popular than one called UNICEF.
UNICEF, the world’s leading child advocacy organization was born out of the ravages of war. Called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF was intended to be a temporary post-war response to aid children left hungry, helpless and homeless by World War II. But it was meant to be more. In 1953, it dropped the words "international" and "emergency" from its name, and was soon known as The United Nation’s Children’s Fund. Today, the organization celebrates its 60th year anniversary working to protect the little ones of our earth. Its anniversary battlecry is "Unite for Children!" It has programs in 190 countries on all the continents of the globe with campaigns to eradicate poverty, disease and literary and to ensure the rights and protection of children.
One of the UNICEF’s first Asian offices was opened in the Philippines in 1948. The first decade focused on health care, with the control and eradication of tuberculosis and leprosy as major goals. The organization also trained community health workers to make immunization programs more effective, while bringing in newer and cheaper drugs. UNICEF has branched out to long term development goals to ensure the welfare and protection, not only of the children but also of their mothers (women). Children in remote barangays and in urban poor communities have been protected from abuse, violence, and exploitation through UNICEF’s support to networks of organized community intervention. As time moves on, the needs of the children seem to escalate even more, mushrooming to all the major issues that can affect a child, from HIV/AIDs, malnutrition due to poverty, lack of safe drinking water and sanitary toilets, natural disasters, and of course, quality education. The darker side of abuse, neglect and exploitation exponentially arises with greater poverty.
UNICEF is funded entirely by voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and government. Many of us know and purchase the UNICEF cards, the most consistent and simplified fundraising project of the agency which is done all over the world. But these cards are mere symbols that challenge each one of us to look beyond ourselves, and try to find a connection to our more altruistic side. While we are not like talented individuals like UNICEF Ambassador of Goodwill Gary Valenciano who donates proceeds of his concerts to UNICEF, we each are in a position to extend help. A minimum of P500 per month may mean almost nothing for many people, and yet would mean giving basic necessities to 40 young children. P1,000 per month will even touch more children.
In an ideal world, we would have no need for a UNICEF. That ideal world would mean a citizenry aware and evolved, conscious of the preciousness of human life and who would possess deep spiritual values to honor it. But we are in a world striving to become ideal, where many of the citizens of the world are still caught in the unconscious grip of the ego’s control, where greed, pride and self-serving directions still rule. In the universal pattern that dictates that Balance will always be achieved in time, UNICEF plays the role of fighting to make the lives of the youngest citizens of the globe more humane. It is an organization that brings conscious action against the unconscious actions of the world.
You are invited to make a conscious choice and be part of this balancing force called UNICEF. Write out a check every month. You won’t event miss out on small change.
For more information, please call UNICEF at (632)901-0100 or visit www.unicef.org/philippines.
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