Wednesday, August 8, 2012

ABS CBN Star Diether Ocampo reached out to the less-privileged children in Abra



DOLORES, Abra - The people of Brgy. Cardona, Dolores were so happy and grateful to meet ABS CBN Star Diether Ocampo, who recently reached their place despite being isolated by typhoon Gener on August 1, 2012.

Aboard a rubber boat, Ocampo and his team who are part of the KIDS Foundation, Inc. dared the heavy rains and raging Malanas river in order to reach the people of Brgy. Cardona where he promised to donate school building and distributed school bags, school supplies and slippers.

Ocampo’s visit to Brgy. Cardona was intended to have a look into the actual condition of the locality in order to be able to make the appropriate program and proposal for a multi-level school building as requested by the people through Mayor Robert Victor G. Seares, Jr. of Dolores, Abra.

A two-story school building is going to be donated by the KIDS Foundation, Inc. intended for the school children at the same time to serve as evacuation center during calamities, because said barangay is always flooded during the rainy season as it is lying low-level and surrounded by three rivers and creeks that cause their isolation even during ordinary typhoon and monsoon rains.

The KIDS (Kabataang Inyong Dapat Suportahan) Foundation, Inc., founded by Ocampo in 2006 with three other co-founders, has for its mission to address and respond to the needs of less-privileged children.  In a brief discussion regarding the programs and projects of the Foundation, with Teejay Deovilla, Programs Coordinator of KIDS Foundation, Inc., he said that, Ocampo was inspired to put up this foundation for children because Ocampo himself is an orphan.  His father died when he was only 8 years old, that he wants to share his blessings to the children.  

Ocampo and his team were supposed to go to Brgy. Cardona on July 31, 2012 upon their arrival in Abra, but they could not cross the Malanas River in Poblacion, Dolores because the flood swelled so high and the current was so strong that the ordinary bamboo rafts could not cross.

Instead, Ocampo spent the day with the people of Dolores and had his birthday party celebration with the children at the Dolores Town Plaza which Mayor Seares sponsored as a way of thanksgiving for his outreach project in Dolores because for the first time in Abra, a showbiz personality had come to the province not to earn a talent fee for his appearance, but rather to serve and respond to the community needs especially in the most depressed barangays. 

The occasion therefore served as an opportunity for Ocampo to consult with the pupils and teachers on what support they need. The pupils requested for a computer unit for their use in school, while Ms. Judith Milagros Zapata, the teacher-adviser of the Drum and Lyre Corps of Dolores Central School requested for a bass drum and trio drums to include sports equipment. Ocampo gave them his outright approval and promised them to deliver the said items during his next trip to Dolores.
The team expressed grateful appreciation to the officers and men of the 503rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, under Col Eliseo C Posadas, the Brigade Commander, by providing security and escort to the team and helped the LGU staff in transporting the school supplies to barangay Cardona, despite the rains and risks in crossing the Malanas River.

The LGU likewise thanked Ms. Michelle Seares-Umali for without her, the ABS-CBN TV Program “Ako ang Simula” which works in close coordination with the KIDS Foundation as sponsor of the projects being brought to Dolores would not have been realized.

Ocampo is expected to be coming to Dolores more often as he said, he had committed to come for the groundbreaking of the school building project, and also wants to see for himself the construction of the project until its inauguration and turnover to the Department of Education and LGU of Dolores, Abra.

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