RAFI to hold Children’s Festival in July, October
July 06, 2010, 02:44:09 pm by nrcudis
Web / News & Updates / RAFI to hold Children’s Festival in July, October
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To commemorate the National Children’s Month Celebration every October, the Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund (DACF) of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) is organizing once again the annual Children’s Festival.
For the first time this year, the festival will be held twice in response to the significant increase of participants, partners, and sponsors.
The first celebration will be on July 17-18 at the Don Bosco Technology Center. With the theme “Dolores, Sumbanan sa Kabataan,” it is designed to introduce to center-based children (those housed in childcare institutions) the life of Dolores Aboitiz and highlight her values and characteristics through activities that promote leadership and citizenship, cultural preservation, integrated development and values education.
“We target 800 children participants with ages four to 17 years old. The children are from different walks of life with different vulnerabilities, such as abused, abandoned, neglected, street laborer, physically and mentally challenged, orphaned, (part of) indigenous groups, out of school, and those from depressed communities,” DACF deputy executive director Anabelle Fajardo said.
The Children’s Festival aims to allow children to interact and learn from each other’s uniqueness through various activities; encourage them to see the brighter side of life through positive interactions with the youth and adult mentors; provide them opportunities to showcase their talents; and inculcate among the children different lessons and values necessary for character building.
“We also want them to enjoy their childhood through fun and play, which they are usually deprived of because of their focus on their means of survival,” Fajardo said.
The upcoming Children’s Festival will feature learning stations to educate the children on various topics relevant to their age group with special emphasis on character building. These stations include Hataw Kabataan Station (culture and heritage), Kabataan para sa Kalikasan at Kalusugan Station (integrated development), Kabataan para sa Bayan Station (leadership and citizenship), and Kabataan at Kagandahang-asal Station (values education).
The second celebration this year will be in October.
The Children’s Festival was first initiated in October 2007 and participated by more than 400 children coming from 12 child-focused institutions. In 2008, the festival was participated by 620 children from 17 child-focused institutions. In 2009, the number of participants grew to 1,628 children from 17 child-focus institutions.
This increase has inspired DACF to upscale the initiative through celebrating the festival twice a year in order to accommodate more children and capacitate more partners to replicate this model in their own communities.
“Celebrating the festival twice a year hopes to address the clamor of partner organizations, there being no similar event organized for the less fortunate children that offer opportunities for them to enjoy, learn, and experience fully what it means to be a child,” Fajardo said.
For more information about the Children’s Festival, contact Fair Ombina through 418-7234 loc. 514.