Earth Day at the Arroceros forest

MANILA, Philippines - For the 13th straight year, the members of Winner Foundation, an organization of women environmentalists, celebrated Earth Day yesterday in the little forest they built in Arroceros, Manila. Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and former First Lady Amelita “Ming” Ramos, who sponsored the building of Arroceros Forest Park, were guest speakers of the event.

The day’s festivities, planned on the theme “Kalikasan, Kabataan, Kinabukasan,” were meant to benefit the indigent children from the Makabata School Foundation in Pasig, run by Maruxa Pita, a nun of the order of the Teresianas, and the Child Hope Asia Foundation. They use the forest as their classroom every Saturday.

A Mass was officiated by Rev. Father John Leydon, an old friend of the Winner Foundation  and a tree-planting activity followed to end the commemoration.