The 3rd World March in a Community Feeding Program for Indigent School Children
“There comes a time
When we heard a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, and it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all…
We can’t go on
Pretending day-by-day
That someone, somewhere soon make a change
We’re all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know, love is all we need
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day, just you and me
— Excerpts of the song, We Are the World” by Michael Jackson
October 20, 2024. In Look 1st Elementary School, a school in one of the barangays or communities of Malolos, Bulacan, 150 children came together to welcome the 3rd World March team in Malolos who came to spend an afternoon with the young students of the school, children in need of some help and assistance for something as basic as a meal and not go hungry.
The World March base team in Look 1st Elementary School.
They say that poverty is about not having enough money for the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. But poverty can be much, much more than simply not just having enough money. Poverty is felt when hunger pangs gnaw the stomach because there isn’t enough to eat. Seeing young children and even entire communities lack the adequate resources to put food on the table, and don’t have the means to acquire the basic necessities of life in order to have a decent life is a painful reality that tells us that we need to continue working for a world of peace and non-violence. This world can be one where everyone, young and old alike, can eat every day to build one’s strength, energy and good health and has access to the means necessary to live well and live in a world that offers opportunities to make the best of one’s life.
In one of the communities, a donation of food packs was sponsored by the non-profit association Culture Ticino Network in Lugano, Switzerland for carefully selected children in need of food.
Headed by president and founder A. Margherita Maffeis-Natale and through the Culture Ticino Network association in Lugano, she began supporting humanitarian projects in the Philippines. In September 2018, she was appointed Honorary Consul of the Philippines in Ticino, a position that further solidified her commitment to this nation. In January 2020, she founded the sister association Culture Ticino Network & Philippines Association in Paombong, Philippines–Paombong being a municipality in Bulacan. (Source: https://generazioninelcuoredellapace.ch/en/about-us /)
The touching moment of the event was seeing the children who came together to sing the song “We Are the World”.
The schoolchildren are getting ready to sing “We Are the World”.
The school children singing “We Are the World”
A group of students also came forward to dance to a lively tune.
The barangay officials helped all throughout the event.
Fixing the food bags to be given to each child to bring home.
The World March representative, Wilfredo Alfsen, is about to give a short message of peace to the assembly.
The World March team gave a message of hope for a better, more humane world with food, clothing, and shelter for every living being, where children can grow up to be happy and free, a strife-free world of peace and well-being for everyone.
Seeing the students receive their food packs was the climax of an afternoon filled with hope and joy.
The Culture Ticino Network association will continue to support this barangay, its basic needs, and most specially, the needs of the young children who live here. This will help give continuity to the passage of the 3rd World March for Peace and Non-violence. Making a call for peace and for ending all forms of violence tells us that we need to join forces so that not a single child goes hungry again.
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Acknowledgments and Thanks:
- Jennifer Espinosa for assisting and accompanying the World March in Malolos, Bulacan.
- Barcie International Hotel for the overnight stay of the World March.
