On April 29, 2015, a little known NGO by the name of Center for Possibilities Foundation Inc. held an invitational golf tournament at the Alabang Golf and Country Club entitled "From Disabled to Enabled". It was planned as a fundraiser for the benefit of children with special needs. 37 men and lady golfers participated. Extraordinarily, most were low handicappers, like Ace Stehmeier, Kit Angeles, Nelson Lim, Sevi Roxas Chua, Martin Puno. And somewhere between the delectable lunch of salpicao, seafood kare kare and laing, the raffling off of door prizes, the exhibit and sale of Filipino paintings, and the awarding of the best players of the tournament, something different and extraordinary happened.
6 children ages 7-18,each with different disabilities from Payatas, stood up to dance, and then sing...and the well tanned and toned golfers otherwise jaded by yet another round of golf were taken by surprise! Brian, at 18 the oldest of the group, born with Down Syndrome, danced so lithely, the guests clapped their hands to the beat of the music with him. Ferlin, at 7, the youngest, born blind, sang a plaintive OPM love song that had the audience in smiles and shaking their heads in amazement.
That day, the Center for Possibilities Foundation, formed in 2008, also launched its online campaign to invite and encourage everyone in the Philippines to embrace a PWD through a platform labelled #projectembracenow.
Ambitiously inspired by the recent viral movement called the Ice Bucket Challenge that promoted worldwide awareness of , #projectembracenow aims to encourage all people to "include" or "embrace" persons with disabilities into the mainstream of Philippine society and communities, by inviting everyone to literally "embrace" a PWD, and enable them to be accepted and welcomed by people of all abilities, not stared at and ostracized, especially by the so called normal population that is often clueless about the challenges and potentials of the disabled sector of society.
The handful of golfers enthusiastically took up the invitation and challenge to embrace a PWD then and there, and every photograph was uploaded instantaneously onto the web. Not content with solo poses, the golfers invited the organizers and the 6 children to join in a series of group shots.
One of the organizers described the golf tournament as MODERATELY SUCCESFUL, having raising a small amount of money that helped meet the costs of organizing the tournament...but declared happily and thankfully that it was ABSOLUTELY SUCCESSFUL in having raised awareness about the need to understand and accept the different types of conditions and disabilities that rendered people of all ages, yes, you and me too, to be differently abled human beings.
Special thanks were mentioned to the many compassionate and empathetic sponsors, which included Tranzen and Alad Mining, Impact Golf Magazine, Facial Care Centre and Marie France, Assumption Class '79, PLILI, Phil. Construction Consortium Corporation, Sound Design, and Alveo Realty, all of whom shared their blessings to help make #projectembracenow a reality!
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