Journal Entry # 13

THE JOURNEY HOME JOURNAL

by: Bobby Manzano, President & Executive Director, OSP

Typhoon Pablo aftermath in Baganga, Davao Oriental. Photo credit: John Javellana by rappler.com

As I am writing this entry, our volunteers are doing medical relief work in Baganga, Davao Oriental, where two weeks ago typhoon Pablo made landfall cutting a wide swath of terror and destruction and  leaving in its wake 156 dead, 431 injured, 21 still missing, and tales of misery and human suffering.  

Our team, led by our Mindanao field director Jojo Cembrano, pushed off last Thursday (Dec. 13^th) for this town of 43,000 souls which is 316 kilometers away from Davao City. They will be incommunicado for the duration of their five-day stay there as the communication lines and cellular signal are still down.

I can just imagine the difficulties they will face in this undertaking. The images I’ve seen on the web show a town that has been flattened by the wrath of Typhoon Pablo.  Power has yet to be restored. Commercial activities are said to have virtually ceased, which means food and water will be in very short supply.

From the last communication I received our mission coordinator Gian Trebol, who flew from Manila to accompany our volunteers, the team will be staying in a house, which roof has been blown off.  It’s one of the few structures left standing and its walls will provide some protection against the elements.   

Let’s all pray for the safety of our volunteers.  They will be subsisting on canned goods and instant noodles and on rationed water and sleeping on cold beds for a while.  Their willingness to take risks to their own persons to help others is truly commendable.  

What our volunteers brought to Baganga is more than just healing – they brought hope (as Operation Smile did in every mission it mounted over the past 30 years).  May this help spark the resolve among the town’s devastated residents to rebuild their lives.

Typhoon Pablo shows us once again that the human spirit triumphs even in the midst of tragedy.

For those who were spared the fury of typhoon Pablo but cannot go personally to the affected areas to help, you can still do your share by donating to help defray the cost of this relief effort.   You can deposit your donations to:

Bank Name: United Coconut Planters Bank - Main Office Branch
Type: Peso Savings Account
Account Name: Operation Smile Philippines
Account Number: 001-128752-4

Bank Name: United Coconut Planters Bank - Main Office Branch
Type: US Dollar Account
Account Name: Operation Smile Philippines
Account Number: 01-001-303364-8
SWIFT CODE: UCPBPHMM

Journal Entry # 12

THE JOURNEY HOME JOURNAL

by: Bobby Manzano, President & Executive Director, OSP

Since we embarked on the The Journey Home, the public’s response to our call for donations to help cleft children has been tremendous.  Here’s a heart-warming text message that I received recently from someone whose interest in what we do was rekindled by the media’s account of The Journey Home:

Bobby and Monica Dominguez

“My name is Monica Martinez-Dominguez. This year for Christmas I have decided not to give presents in the form of clothes and toys but instead something more meaningful and will have greater effect on the recipient. I would like to sponsor 4 surgeries in the name of my siblings and their kids.

Please help me how to go about sending the donation to your office.

Thank you and God bless you for your wonderful work.”

Monica dropped by the office the other day to find out more about Operation Smile. I showed her our television commercial, the one featuring our former patient Angel, and she cried as she was watching it.  She promised to help spread the word about our cause to her friends and relatives.  God bless you, too, Monica! 

Carleen and Jonathan

Carleen Krug, an executive of the regional media outlet Asian Business Channel also visited us yesterday.  She was rushing to another meeting but took the time to see us to give a cash donation for the surgery of two more children. Carleen made the donation in the names of her mother and brother; it’s her Christmas gift to them.  Her colleague, Jonathan Bolick, who was with her said he’ll send his donation soon.

I first met Carleen as we were about to start The Journey Home.  Her media outlet was doing a special feature on the Philippines and one of the people she interviewed for the feature was Jajo Quintos, our chairman.  Jajo asked her to see me to explore the possibility of doing a feature on Operation Smile.  After I briefed her, she just pulled out P15,000 from her wallet and said she wanted to sponsor the surgery of one child! 

The Operation Smile story is a powerful tale.  It touches people.  It stirs their emotion and moves them to act. This is why we’re spending a great deal of time and effort in getting media to tell our story. The media enable us to reach a wider audience.  

Mind you, getting our story aired or published is not an easy task given the limited media space and the keen competition for media attention. We have to be able to tell our story in a fresh way or in a different angle to make them current, relevant and newsworthy – and compelling.  The Journey Home created for us a platform to re-tell our story in many different ways.

The efforts of our supporters during the run up to The Journey Home and after the mission boosted our media profile.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank 88Storey Films, Director Christian Acuña and Producer Cris Dy-Liacco and McCann Worldgroup for developing such an arresting storyline for our television commercial, for producing it for free and for negotiating free airtime for its broadcast.  

By the way, this television commercial, which won the prestigious Catholic Mass Media Award only a month ago, bagged an even bigger honor recently – a silver in the Araw Values Award.
  

The Araw Values Award is an award created by the Philippine advertising industry to recognize advertisements that promote and advocate desirable social values.  The Operation Smile television commercial won in the category “respect and care for human life and dignity and the rights of all.”

Photo 1: Peter Acuña, Matt Crescenzo, Bobby Manzano and Joanna Tirados. 
Photo 2: Sandy Salinda, Mitzie Nacianceno, Ricki Arches and Bobby Manzano

I would also like to thank again PLDT and Smart Communications for its ongoing campaign to drive donation via text messaging.  As of December 13, or a week after its launch, the campaign has already generated P768,135 or roughly US$ 19,000, which means 50 children with cleft will be receiving their gift of smile soon.