No one is too young to make a difference

Upon the invitation of Fernando Zobel de Ayala through my good friend and triathlon mentor Geraldine Santiago, my daughter Ella and I spent a lovely afternoon being inspired by the Habitat for Humanity Youth Council. During the merienda cena at the lovely home of Susana “Chu-chu” Madrigal-Eduque, we witnessed how three kind-hearted young people — Natasha Zobel de Ayala, Cristian Saguil, and Enrico Po — were honored for raising almost P1.2M for Habitat for Humanity’s Caluan Resettlement project. There, I realized that, indeed, no one is too young to make a difference. At the same time, I found it amazing that the youth are perfect fundraisers for different important causes as it’s often hard for their parents, titos, and titas to say no to their solicitations!

Some years back, I learned about Alexandra Eduque, a founding member of the Habitat Youth Council when I read about her debut ball raising P2 million for her mom’s hometown, Bicol.  The village she helped was named Alexville to honor the young advocate of the poor. Since then, I have often shared with my children the possibility of making a difference as they celebrate birthdays and milestones in their lives. I have encouraged them to make use of such occasions as a platform to get their friends and relatives involved in making a difference in the lives of our less fortunate countrymen. If more people help others, our country will be such a better place. We, of course, can only inspire our children to help, but the desire should come from them. That is why I was excited to come to the gathering because I knew we were about to listen to the youth talk about their passions and I knew it would speak volumes to my daughter who was there because she’d hear about an invitation to something so meaningful from her peers.

Alex now acts as chair of the council and shared with us their deepest thanks to all the donors, accomplishments and plans for the future, complete with figures, photos, and even an MTV to back up her presentation. It was like attending a lively board meeting of the foundation but with the young people taking charge. These kids rock!

I think more than our children, we the parents were encouraged to inspire our children about the possibilities for our brood to be of help. In our table, there were discussions among the parents on how to get our children involved and when Sofia Zobel de Ayala-Elizalde was asked how she instills in her children the desire to help, she shared that more than anything, it was just through their example. I couldn’t agree more as children normally gravitate towards those they see their parents are passionate about. In the case of Alex, it was the example of her grandmother Consuelo Madrigal’s devotion to socio-civic activities that inspired her to also get involved in helping out others. The same thing probably happened to Natasha who has witnessed her parents, Fernando and Kitkat Zobel de Ayala, establish different advocacies for a better Philippines through the Ayala Foundation. Ayala Land has also become a major supporter of the Habitat for Humanity Caluan resettlement area. Fernando said that they are trying to do the best that they could do to improve whatever facilities were first made available at the resettlement area. Though their company usually caters to affluent families, he is excited about this project because they can test to see if they can then cater to a new market to service our poor.

I asked my daughter Ella what she thought of the evening. More than anything, she was happy to have spent some time sharing with her good friend Natasha or Tashi a memorable event in her life. At the same time, I was happy to hear that she was glad to have been exposed to more options for advocacy work and I believe it is just a matter of time before she chooses her own calling and we, her parents, will definitely be 101 percent behind her.

Definitely, there is hope for our future!

If you feel led to help build homes for a worthy cause, visit the Habitat for Humanity Philippines’ website at www.habitat.org.ph or call 897-3069.