Hi! Im Kathleen and I’m 15 years old. I’m a Gen 3, who are the third generation of the Focolare Movement, whose aim is to build Unity and Universal brotherhood.
I wanted to share a short experience regarding these past few months living in the Philippines in this chaotic time in the world. Last March 16, 2020 which is 7 months ago, our president announced the enhanched community quarantine which was an effective total lockdown, the status has changed consistently but personally I have only been outside the walls of my home only a handful of times in these past 7 months considering the rise of the cases. The Filipino People has been through a lot not only with the 362k of covid-19 cases as of October 22 but with the political situation as well. With the passing of the Anti terror bill with the negative effect of this bill to our human rights to the Filipinos who have been laid off from their jobs and students who had no other option but to opt out for this school year with their current financial situations.
I personally am blessed and fortunate enough to be able to live comfortably in my home, all my family members and friends are safe and healthy and even getting our education online is something that I learned to be a privelage that not every citizen nor person has.
Being a Gen it was always instilled in us to help whoever are in need and in a time like this we needed to become a little more innovative with the restrictions of being at home . With the other gen 3 here we wanted to do the smallest act of love in our own ways.We did a collaboration with the youth for a united world in their project to raise funds for the covid 19 frontliners, and we added our own touch by sending them handmade cards with words of encouragements along with the meals they recieved.
There is also a small team who handles the instagram page of the teens4unityph, which we found was our way to be able to present the monthly word of life, connect to other gen3 in the different islands in our country and spread the positive message of Chiara. These projects and initiatives of the Gen has always was a reminder of our goal of unity and love. Thank you!
Ciao, everyone! I am Micah, a Gen from Cebu, Philippines, and I am here to share a short experience of mine.
Last March 12, my school officially declared our classes to be suspended due to the sudden rise in the number of COVID-19 positive cases. Most of the students were staying in the dorms within the campus, so we were all told to go home to our families as soon as possible. Some of the students came from other islands, such as Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros, so it was quite difficult for all of us to vacate the dorms immediately. However, it was especially difficult for one of my friends, Pia. A couple of my friends and I noticed that she seemed very restless about something so we decided to ask her about it. Pia is from Bohol, and she doesn’t get to see her family as often as she would like to, since she would still need to travel by ferry. She also receives her allowance from her mother via “pera padala”. That day, she told us that since she had not planned on going home, she was not able to set aside enough money for the ferry. She called her mother earlier that day to ask for more, but the money was scheduled to arrive about two days later. By then, it would have been too late for her to go home, since Bohol ports were said to be on lockdown by March 14, exactly two days later. Hearing this, my friends and I became very worried. We didn’t know how long the lockdown would last. She would have to be alone in Cebu and away from her family for the whole duration of the lockdown. So, we decided to help her with what we had. My friends and I pitched in as much as we could from our own allowance, and with five people, we had just enough to cover her fare to Bohol and a meal so she wouldn’t be hungry during her trip. Pia was very touched by what we did that she started to cry and gathered us all in one big group hug. The next day, she left for Bohol. She messaged us as soon as she got there and told us she was finally safe at home with her family. Seeing her safe and happy made all of us very happy, too.
