Celebrating Christmas with a Cause

Celebrating Christmas with a Cause

Santacruzan Beauties (from left: April Severino, Anabelle Mayor, Grace Manaog, Ledelyn Martinez, Marcia Cruz, Eunice Ado, Catherine Kao, Megan Amahan and Laila Kao.

Filipinos in Somona Heights, Woodbridge, Ontario

By Jonathan B. Canchela

Christmas is usually a festive celebration for people around the world. For many Filipinos, it is a time for family reunions, community gatherings, holiday parties and some sort of coming together while eating traditional foods and chatting about Filipino holiday traditions and anything about politics back home.

For some, Christmas gathering is about celebrating a success and planning another “mission” to helping the less fortunate kababayans back in the Philippines.

That was how a group of Filipinos in Sonoma Heights, Woodbridge, Ontario spent their holiday get-together last December 2. All clad in traditional Filipino costumes, cross-generational members of the Filipino community in the area attended the well-organized event held at The Passionist Sisters convent in Clarence Street.

The evening was filled with great food, traditional music, games for both kids and kids at heart, and cultural presentations. Several groups displayed their talents by dancing Filipino folk dances like Cariñosa, Subli and Bulaklakan.

“Santacruzan” was one of the cultural highlights of the night. Nine lovely ladies all wearing traditional costumes faced off in a runway (or hallway) challenge. In the end, Laila Kao emerged as the winner regaling the crowd with her beautiful Filipiniana dress with matching headdress with real tropical fruits.

The Passionist Sisters of the St. John of the Cross, and the kids of the Maria Goretti Home for Girls in General Santos City. (Photo by Stella Martinez)

‘Philippine Mission’

Organizers sold tickets during the event and raffled off prizes donated by members and their friends. It was a fund-raising initiative for “Bundle of Joy” – distribution of goods and feeding program in various communities in the Philippines. Proceeds from this year’s activity will directly benefit some families living in Bustillos, Sampaloc, Manila.

Stella Martinez, one of the event organizers, said the Bundle of Joy program is part of the ‘Philippine Mission’ and is being administered by their mission partners back home – the Augustinian Recollect Sisters and the Passionist Sisters of St. John of the Cross.
“Every five years, Luz and I make it a point to do an outreach in person. In February this year we were able to serve the poorest of the poor through the feeding program and distribution of toys, school supplies and other items. We were able to serve 5 communities totaling more or less 1,000 children,” said Martinez.

Inspired by experience of meeting with the Philippine delegates of the World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, Martinez and her good friend Luz Garcia started the ‘Philippine Mission’ in 2003 for the “purpose of educating the less fortunate through a sponsorship program.”
More than thirteen years since then, the mission has continued to grow through the generous support of “family members, friends, co-workers, Sonoma community and our church community.”

“Our mission is based on trust. All our sponsors and donors are not given a receipt when they provide the funds to support the mission. All of them are people who know Luz and myself personally and based on the trust that they have for us continue to provide their overwhelming support to the mission year after year. We are very transparent though. Letters from the children and the sisters are distributed respectively so they’ll know when the funds and donation of goods are received,” Martinez said.

Filipino community in Sonoma Heights, Woodbridge during their Christmas party on December 2. (2 PHOTOS: Tan Canchela)

Martinez said that fifteen children have graduated in college with the help of the mission and are now contributing members of the society and also paying it forward by helping their siblings get the education they need.

The mission also gives financial support to the Maria Goretti Home for Girls in General Santos City, and two other learning centers in the country.

The mission had also been helping two Filipinas who are currently under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). One of them is Leah Golpo. She is from Bulan, Sorsogon, and a former volunteer in Culiat Learning Centre in Quezon City. She met Martinez and Garcia through Sr. Miguela Obera, AR, who was supervising the learning center then. The mission financially helped Golpo to get her caregiver course and assisted her to come to Canada in 2014. She recently received her open work permit, and had submitted her application for permanent residency.

Asked in an email interview what’s the difference between working abroad and working back home, Golpo said: “I think the nature of work. It’s different here in Canada. But the good thing is I can save more money and help more my family unlike back home where my salary is just enough for myself.”

Season of Sharing

The Filipino community of Sonoma Heights celebrates Christmas every year with a fund-raising activity knowing that many people back home need every little support they could provide by supporting the mission.

The group also helped the mission this year in sending 26 balikbayan boxes – in time for Christmas season – containing food items, clothing and school supplies to different areas of the Philippines like Masbate, Palawan, General Santos, Marikina, Pampanga and other areas in Metro Manila.

Everyone was happy during the Christmas gathering last December 2. They know that during this season of sharing many families in the Philippines would experience the true spirit of joy that Christmas brings to people.