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MonOn the 20th of December 2009, with just 5 days left until Christmas, One Tama volunteers took time out from the last-minute shopping and the frenzied baking to prepare a gift of a different kind. From 8am to 6pm, over a hundred students, yuppies and not-so-yu-ppies trickled into the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) in response to a call from Walls of Hope to help restore the murals at the hospital. Some came alone, some with friends, some brought their children and younger siblings for an early introduction to volunteerism. Some were brought back by an attachment to PCMC – some because they went there when they were younger and others because they took their kids there, some families consisted of both – but many were just drawn by the opportunity to do good in the spirit of Christmas.
There was a range of tasks to choose from so anybody and everybody was able to help – from conceiving the design for a section of the hospital (for artists who were up to the challenge) to priming walls and columns (for the 3-year-olds and the artistically challenged :p). As the designs were sketched onto the walls, and the outlines made bolder with paint, PCMC was transformed into a gigantic coloring book that at first sight immediately excited volunteers. Different parts of the murals encouraged different forms of creativity – colorful leaves in an alamat that came together in striking harmony, subtle embroidery on the pants of one of many children playing Filipino games, even the hand prints on the area for Walls of Hope signatures showed the volunteers’ cleverness.
Passers-by paused to watch as the artists skillfully gave life to the characters on the walls, and even the less artistic volunteers were admired for their generosity and determination. Studies have shown murals to provide therapeutic benefits to the patients and visitors in hospitals, but that day it was a more powerful picture uplifting the spirits of the children and their families.
And the volunteers gained as much as they gave. Positive energy was reverberating off the walls! The artists who planned each area, though probably tired, were remarkably patient, encouraging and helpful; those who came alone left with new friends; and Thank You’s were exchanged incessantly. In fact the volunteers were so immersed in the activity that many wound up staying longer than they initially intended, some struggling to leave for the other engagements they had squeezed WoH in before. People who didn’t have work or school came back the next day. One little girl and her family effectively circumvented any conflict in schedule by celebrating her birthday there instead!
In a few days Walls of Hope successfully breathed new life into the whole first floor of PCMC – an estimated 3,590-square-meter spread. Each volunteer simply assumed a small portion of the murals at a time, but collectively their efforts gave rise to something truly grand. In a way they exemplified the moral of “Munting Patak Ulan”, the best-known mural of the hospital. Mai Valera, whose inspired idea Walls of Hope was, was notably impressed by the story during her visits to PCMC as a child; thus it was retained while all other murals in the hospital were changed. ‘The message I got was that even if you’re as tiny as the munting patak-ulan, it doesn’t stop you from making a contribution to make society better,’ Mai was quoted saying in a newspaper feature on the project. In a singular act she proved that to herself, shared the realization with her peers, and made the message more relevant for the future generations who might not have appreciated the story if the murals hadn’t been restored. J
*** Photos by Rachel Garcia, one of the inspiring organizers of Walls of Hope. For more information about the project, please visit http://wallsofhope.tumblr.com/.
