Enzo, Jasmine do virtual run for education & health

Away from the klieg lights, Enzo Pineda and Jasmine Curtis-Smith also take on diverse roles. Being a World Vision celebrity ambassador is one. They are able, to some extent, live by the African proverb: It takes a village to raise a child. In experiencing what a village is, Enzo and Jasmine perhaps look at themselves as part of the whole to address pressing issues that concern children.

Enzo and Jasmine will participate in the upcoming World Vision’s undertaking, the first Virtual Run for Children.

“For me, it’s to bring a community together that can help another community,” said Jasmine of the joy she derives from doing advocacy work for World Vision. “It is always nice to see that you are able to encourage a community to join a cause.” The Kapuso actress added that by making people aware of a cause through information dissemination is a help in itself.

As for Enzo, the Kapamilya actor shared, “(It’s a good feeling that) I’m able to do the things that I love and at the same time, encourage other people to help out our children... it’s very satisfying that you have your own fitness goals and you get to help a lot of people in the process and I really want to encourage everybody to do the same thing. These (education and health) are like the two important things that we have to focus on.”

Yes, education is a great equalizer, as they say, and health and nutrition should be a priority for children to become productive students, and survive the present pandemic. The virtual run’s beneficiaries are “the underprivileged Filipino children and communities, especially those affected” by COVID-19 and everyone is encouraged to join the fundraising activity. Participants can either walk or run (for 21k, 50k, 100k or 200k) “whether indoors and outdoors,” and can tap an app to monitor their running or steps. Registration is until June 30.

“(For) as long as kaya pa ng legs ko, gagawin ko,” Enzo expressed his commitment to the advocacy, which has become part of his lifestyle. “I’m very thankful to be part of this... Now is the time that we encourage everybody to work together for a cause and now is the time for our voices to be heard.” Jasmine also felt the same way by saying, “I think it’s kinda become part of my lifestyle that annually, you know, I really help out… and join... Once you’ve become an ambassador, you really live (it) and walk the talk.”

This year, Jasmine and Enzo will run for children’s education, as well as health and nutrition.

“We all know that I’ve always been vocal about education and about supporting kids, and about my own education as well,” she said. “I’m always open about that na hindi pa rin ako tapos. I like to highlight that (advocacy for education) but at the same time, with what’s happening now, I will run for both.”

Prior to the implementation of community quarantine or lockdown, Jasmine recalled that she and fellow actors were “midway shooting Descendants of the Sun,” the GMA 7 drama-and-action series. “We are actually allowed na as an industry to really resume… but there’s nothing yet set in stone... lahat ipagpapaalam pa. It will still depend on further developments (of) the situation.”

Enzo, on the other hand, was able to wrap up work on the set of the Jason Paul Laxamana movie, He Who is Without Sin, for the Sinag Maynila Film Festival. But he had another project that didn’t push through. “We were supposed to shoot in Korea,” Enzo shared. “I’ve learned how to speak Korean and everything (is) set. Hopefully, after this lockdown, we can resume taping and I don’t know yet if we can still shoot abroad.”

For now, Enzo and Jasmine will focus on their run for the World Vision children.

(To register, visit www.takbo.ph/vr/worldvisionrun2020 and for details, like and follow World Vision Run on Facebook, www.facebook.com/worldvisionrun.)