Praying for Haiti

Our volunteer group here has barely recovered from the Ondoy incident in the Philippines. We are now gearing for another set of fund-raising activities and donations to aid the victims of the calamity in Haiti.

I was watching CNN a while ago. I knew I shouldn't have. My threshold for showing emotion is low that I cannot help but cry for their suffering. I pray that we all do our share to help these people who are still homeless, hungry, tired, sleep-deprived and broken. Do your part to reach out. Let's all help and pray for the people of Haiti.

Efren Penaflorida - The CNN Hero of the Year 2009

I posted sometime back about the nomination of Efren Penaflorida for the CNN Hero of the Year 2009. I am very happy to know that he was chosen as the CNN Hero of the Year.

His noble gesture to help the street children through education has given hope and light to them. I salute you, Efren, for a being role model to our fellowmen. Your kind gesture and altruistic intention to serve your countrymen is something to be emulated.

Congratulations to you and may you continue to spread your good work. Congratulations too to all the nominees of the CNN Hero of the Year 2009. You have all made a great difference in this world.

In Case of Emergency

I am a member of our company's Emergency Response Unit . We regularly have simulation of events where we play the role of telephone agents providing information to the affected families. Every year we go through emergency response training and phone-answering skills to equip ourselves in the event of a real emergency.

Almost 2 weeks ago, I received a text from our unit's emergency alert system about a situation I need to attend to by driving to the nearest assembly point. My heart pounded because I was not sure if the call was for real or just one of those emergency drill. Few minutes later while I was ready to drive to the nearest assembly, I received another text that it was just one of the drill to see how quickly the volunteers would respond to a real-life emergency. Whew!