The milk of human kindness

MANILA, Philippines - Diether Ocampo always had a love affair with milk. As a one-time student of Physical Therapy, he knows the value of milk as a rich source of body-building calcium. Coming as he does from a family of doctors, Diether grew up drinking two glasses of milk a day. The habit has stuck up to now, when he needs all the stamina he can get for his ABS-CBN soap Only You and his K.I.D.S. (Kabataang Inyong Dapat Suportahan) Foundation.

 “I wanted to be a doctor,” he relates. And since he didn’t end up as one, Diether continues his passion for health in other ways. He goes to the gym, joins the K.I.D.S.’ Foundation recent fund-raising fun run at UP Diliman and stays away from vice.

That Sunday when he went to Bonifacio High Street for Tetra Pak Philippines’ 9th World Milk Day Celebration, Diether was up early for the fun run.

“Our youngest participant was five years old while the oldest was 60,” Diether recalls.

He hardly showed any sign of fatigue however, when he went up the stage that afternoon to receive the P50,000 donation from Tetra Pak milk partners. The money, as usual, will go to the KI.D.S. Foundation’s young beneficiaries.

Diether was just as busy the weekend before. He brought 100 excited kids to Araneta Coliseum to watch the Harlem Globetrotters, for free. The wide-eyed children under K.I.D.S. Foundation sat, mesmerized, as they watched their idols in action for the first time.

“They were stunned,” reports Diether, smiling.

It is for this, and other heartwarming things that Diether continues to travel far and near for K.I.D.S. Foundation. His efforts have brought him as far as Zambales, where a Good Samaritan couple put up a library for Christians and Muslims alike.

“I see myself in the struggling kids’ shoes,” relates Diether. “I was like them once.”

Now that he’s paying it forward, Diether’s adrenaline level is at an all-time high. Chances are, it will remain that way, as long as there are children out there who need help and compassion from someone who’s been there, done that, like Diether Ocampo.