“There is no big or small gestures…There is just helping others”

As part of the requirements in NSTP, we were assigned at World Vision to do community service for at most 20 hours.. I've only been to their office three times and worked for 20 hours but the limited time I spent there made me realize a lot of things but the most important lesson from my experience is that there is no big or small gesture, there is just helping others... From the first day, we were assigned to do a lot of things. Realizing we were at a relief-giving organization, I was looking forward to joining one relief operation. Unfortunately, I never got to leave their office and well, "base. As for the giving of relief, I only went as far as repacking relief goods and transferring them from one part of the office to another. At first, my group was assigned to labeling of coin banks. We glued printed labels to coin banks donated (I think) by different companies. (I inferred from the original painted labels on the coin banks which were logos of petron, caltex and shell.) Anyway, I had the feeling that it wasn't so much as a charitable act as doing a school activity. But then, before the day ended, we were assigned to repacking canned goods and hygiene kit bound to be distributed in Malabon where, at the time, a lot of families were still at evacuation centers. I then had the feeling that I was actually doing community work. But it didn't hit me until later when we were handling paperwork that it didn't matter what I was doing, it just mattered that I was helping. There were at least over a thousand profiles of sponsored children, most of them below 16. We were organizing their profiles and clipping their progress reports. As I looked over their personal information and their pictures, I realized that these were children who were despite their impoverished conditions; they were being given the chance to a better future and a possibility of fulfilling their dreams. The relief goods and sponsorship are more than just a symbol of giving or helping, it is a symbol of hope. A hope that despite the system and despite the political and social setbacks, we can have a better future because the most important element of a nation, the people, the children at that, are given the chance to become assets and not liabilities of the country. If only we had more leaders than politicians, we could be doing more. But as I said, the small gestures are just as important because they are a start; A small step for bigger possibilities.