If you’re still looking for a good reason to run (or walk, or simply get up from the couch), here’s an event that will benefit not just your health and well-being but the futures of thousands of underprivileged students, their families, and their communities.
Tzu Chi Foundation’s Charity Run for Education on July 21 at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City, invites participants to cover the doable distances of 1K, 3K, 5K, or 10K. Proceeds from whichever category you sign up for go to Tzu Chi’s Educational Assistance Program, which currently supports 1,700 disadvantaged elementary, high school, and college scholars.
Sydney Alipao, a Tzu Chi scholar since Grade 5, is aware that the funds for her education for the past 11 years are sourced entirely from donations—from the deep pockets of private and corporate benefactors, to the bits of change dutifully collected in coin cans by survivors of disaster.
“Hindi ko po alam yung mga pangalan nila o taga saan sila (I don’t know their names or where they’re from),” says the daughter of a tricycle driver, who is now on her third year in BA Journalism at UP. “The only way I can give back is mag-aral ng mabuti (to do well in my studies).”
“Kaya hinihiling po namin na sumama kayo sa charity run, para mas makakilala pa po tayo ng maraming scholars na nandoon (So please join the charity run so you can meet the different scholars),” she adds. “Sa bawat hakbang ng mga dadalo sa charity run ay isa rin pong hakbang patungo sa finish line ng mga pangarap ng bawat scholar (Every step you take in the charity run leads each scholar closer to the finish line of their dreams).”
Launched in 1995, a year after the Taiwan-based humanitarian organization was founded in the Philippines, Tzu Chi’s Educational Assistance Program has awarded 13,000 scholarships to poor yet deserving youth from Zamboanga, Davao, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Iloilo, Pampanga, Bicol, and the National Capital Region.
The scholarship shoulders a qualified applicant’s tuition, various allowances, and basic necessities like rice.
It also ingrains in young minds the values espoused by Tzu Chi’s founder, Buddhist nun Dharma Master Cheng Yen. Monthly Humanity classes hosted by volunteers and guest speakers engage scholars in lively discussions on filial piety, environmental awareness, mental health, and other relevant topics.
Any values learned are then applied in hours of community service. Scholars devote time and effort assisting Tzu Chi volunteers in disaster relief operations, recycling programs, medical missions, and in the case of Alipao, a flea market fundraiser in her community of Old Balara, Quezon City.
Before scholars know it, they would have adopted one of Master Cheng Yen’s oft-quoted aphorisms: “Giving is not the privilege of the rich,” she said. “It is the privilege of the sincere.”
Co-organized by Runrio, Tzu Chi’s Charity Run for Education will give each participant a loot bag, shirt (for 1K runners) or singlet (for 3K, 5K, and 10K runners) made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a material processed from single-use plastic bottles. They will also get to use collapsible hydration cups made from the agricultural waste wheat straw. The durable, reusable cup is a sustainable solution to the thousands of paper and plastic cups discarded by runners during a race. A finisher’s medal awaits each participant who crosses the finish line of their category.
Let your run on July 21 make a difference in a scholar’s life. Run for kindness. Support Tzu Chi’s scholars. Register now at: https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88678/tzu-chi-charity-run. Processing and admin fees apply.
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