A million pairs of Hope

MANILA, Philippines - The broadcast journalist adds, “I think the more popular you are, the more responsibility you have to make a difference in other ways than just entertaining or informing people.”

Sanchez takes these words to heart and has been using her popularity to reach out to less fortunate communities around the country through her program Rated K. This year, she has challenged herself and her supporters to collect one million pairs of rubber slippers to donate to children all over the Philippines.

 Sanchez has always made it a point to include a charity component in the shows she hosts. “Since my early 20s, I would already be in the squatter’s area,” she shares. “It would never really be a requirement of my line up or of my content, but it had always been a magazine format where I could do anything – different segments – and there would always be charity.”

She took her show as an opportunity to help. In the past, she would provide clothes, books, food, medicine, toys, and other basic needs, just as many companies would.

“Then  I graduated to housing, I ambitioned to do my own version of Gawad Kalinga in Quezon,” she says. “So there are a few houses there that I put up with my own money, only to realize that I would need professional help in zoning, so that’s at a standstill now and I intend to hook up with Gawad Kalinga for that.”

Then, eight years ago, when Rated K was still new, Sanchez was set to feature Leyte in a segment for the show. “Ano’ng mga kailangan ng mga tao doon?” she asked her co-anchor Ted Failon on his hometown. “He told me to bring rubber slippers.”

“So we went to these far-flung areas and we brought rubber slippers,” says Sanchez, adding that rubber slippers are called “smagol” in many places in the Visayas and Mindanao because the less fortunate there know rubber slippers as smuggled from China.

“When I looked at the slippers of the kids, wow, they were really poor excuses for slippers,” says Sanchez. “We immediately identified it as a basic need often overlooked.”

She shares, “When we saw the need in Leyte, we looked all over and it seemed like it’s a nationwide problem that kids either walk to school barefoot, or they use really, really tattered slippers that they try to keep together with staples or rubber bands or wires.”

Seeing these children and experiencing their joy upon receiving a pair of tsinelas really jumpstarted the campaign. In Leyte, and in succeeding visits Sanchez and her crew made to the far flung corners of the country, they realized how a simple pair of rubber slippers could indeed make a huge impact on a young child.

“After over seven years, we were finally able to hit a million pairs, and I thought, ‘Why do I have to wait seven years to give a million?’ There are so many kids who need it,” says Sanchez on taking the next step in the campaign, from giving away about 300 pairs of rubber slippers a week, to launching the Isang Milyong Tsinelas project which aims to reach the same target of one million pairs within the year.

“You’ll be surprised by how many people there are who are not even rich who want to help in some way or another,” says Sanchez. Donating a pair – or more – of rubber slippers is a simple and easy way to make a simple yet significant impact on lives of its recipient.

“Being a public figure – and a credible enough authority on tsinelas – I thought of asking for slippers, which is so cheap and which you can buy from your neighborhood sari-sari store. This is something so doable for anybody,” she says.

Half-way into the year, Sanchez admits that they have only been able to collect some 300,000 pairs so far. But she remains optimistic, with support for the project increasing steadily.

“Since we’ve started calling out actively, the response has been overwhelming,” says Sanchez. “There’s not been one person we’ve approached that hasn’t given. There hasn’t been one company we’ve approached who hasn’t given.”

Donations are now being coursed through the ABS-CBN Foundation. Sanchez says that they are coordinating as well with the Department of Education to identify the ten poorest schools in Metro Manila and will soon meet about schools in the Visayas and Mindanao to pinpoint the communities that need the tsinelas the most.

“I don’t think there are only one million kids who need it,” says Sanchez, looking beyond the one million pairs. “The way our population is growing, there will be even more. It’s really just to help create a spark in society about coming together for a common cause. It’s a civic activity that all of us can be part of to make a difference in our country. Hopefully, this sets an example.”

Sanchez realizes that collecting one million pairs of rubber slippers is no easy feat. “It’s a tall order, because if you were to buy a pair of high grade rubber slippers, it would be about P35. That’s P35 million,” she estimates. But she remains hopeful. “I was thinking, there are 92 million Filipinos, let’s say half of them are adults and they give one pair each... If you always think in that sense, you think anything is doable.”

Ultimately, it is the children who continue to motivate Sanchez and her team to fulfill the project’s goal. “When you talk to the kids, when you ask them, ‘Why are your slippers like this? Why did you not replace them?’ they’ll suddenly burst into tears,” Sanchez shares.

“It’s really heartbreaking... they feel so small that they can’t even buy their own slippers. We think that these kids walk to school either barefoot or with really tattered slippers not really minding, because we think they’re used to that kind of life. But it’s not the case. These kids have their own idea of self-worth and ambitions. Each kid has a potential that is often stunted by the absence of hope or dignity,” says Sanchez.

“They know they deserve more, but they can’t afford it. You think that they’re okay with it, but they are embarrassed to live in circumstances like that,” she adds. “When you give them new slippers, it’s dignity restored, hope restored.”