THE JOURNEY HOME JOURNAL
by: Bobby Manzano, President & Executive Director, OSP
The Journey Home generated
a lot of good press for us and the excitement it created seems to be yielding
the effect we had intended from the start. This morning, I got two calls, one
from the incoming president of a Rotary Club in Makati and another from a local
government official in Eastern Samar, a province which lies many miles south of
Manila. Both expressed keen interest in hosting an Operation Smile medical
mission in their respective locality. If this continues, we’re going to have another
busy year in 2013.
As I’ve mentioned in
my post mission report, we are going to leverage the hype and emotion we built
during The Journey Home to attract more adherents to our cause. Two of our
staunch supporters are going to help us here.
Smart Communications is running a multi-media campaign to drive
donations via text messaging during the Christmas season. I’ve also talked with
people from McCann Worldwide about doing a post-mission print ad for us after
the New Year.
McCann Worldwide and
Smart Communications have been outstanding in their support for us throughout
The Journey Home. I couldn’t thank them
enough; they played a big role in the mission’s success.
In between my
meetings today, I had some time to look at the photographs taken during The
Journey Home and one particular shot, shown above, caught my attention. That boy will wake up to a new life. The memory of the nightmarish existence he
had before his surgery will fade like a bad dream in time, and he can move on
and have a future. I’ve seen this
tableau hundreds of times before yet it still stirs me. It’s truly magical how we can transform a
life in a matter of just a few minutes.
There are numerous
moments like this that you’ve captured with your cameras, and we would greatly
appreciate it if you can share these with us.
We are currently preparing a post-mission report that we’ll submit to
our donors and partners and your photographs will allow us to tell the story of
The Journey Home better than any written words can.
Please send the
images via email to albert.santos@operationsmile.org.ph
or burn them on a disc and send to Operation Smile Philippines, 19/F, UCPB
Building, 7907 Makati Avenue, Makati, Philippines 1225.
