God loves a cheerful giver.

It's the 4th day of the Bayani Challenge in Cadiz City. While a group of volunteers stroll around different places to collect funds for the Paraisong Pambata activity (Birthday Party), he steps back and forth with a hesitant heart to get near them. He touches one volunteer and stares him directly in his eyes. At the back of the volunteers’ minds, he is just another street child who wants to ask for alms. Unexpectedly, the boy grabs something from his pocket, a 10 peso coin. He drops that coin to the box that the volunteer is handling and runs off.

Nonoy’s innocent smile reflects his generosity within

(Photo Credit: Christine Villar)

This is how a 12 year-old boy, Dennis Claro, surprised the volunteers and changed their outlooks on the virtue of generosity. “It was just here that I have realized that even a small kid can teach you how to be generous,” said Jem Deliarte, a first-time volunteer for Gawad Kalinga, who was deeply moved by the kind heart of Dennis.

Most people used to call Dennis as “Nonoy”. He was born with a cleft palate but the genuine smile in his face is more visible, beyond his disabilities. “Maskin diin lang na siya gapa gala-gala permi,” said a resident who has always seen Nonoy wandering in the busy streets of Cadiz.

According to Nonoy, his mother already died when he was still young. “May duwa pa ko ka utod pero ang isa napatay na tungod sa gutom (I have two siblings but the other one died because of hunger),” shared teary-eyed Nonoy. He goes home with his grandmother residing in Purok Narra, a mountainous area in Cadiz. His love for his grandma really surfaced in his being after the Paraisong Pambata Birthday Party. He pleaded to another volunteer for money in order for him to buy food for his grandmother saying, “Busog na ko ya, pero ang lola ko wala pa kakaon (My stomach is already full but my grandma is still starving).”

In his young age, he already knows how to live a Christian life. With his simple clothes and a pair of slippers which he wears in a long perspiring day walking anywhere, he never forgets to attend mass all alone in a nearby church when Sunday comes.

Nonoy touches the hearts of the volunteers and entertains his fellow kids as he grooves to the beat

(Photo Credit: Christine Villar)

For the volunteers, Nonoy’s story opens their hearts and minds to the real meaning of loving and sharing. At first, they thought that those people who own establishments, well-dressed, intellectual and stable can give and share more. Later they realized that simpler people like Nonoy can share something more than everything they have.

A 10 peso coin — it may just be a very small amount that we pettily keep in our pockets, but for Nonoy, it is something that he wholeheartedly gave to add more smiles to his fellow kids in Cadiz.  He may have a body of a child but he truly has the big heart of a true volunteer.

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Gawad Kalinga is not a charity, rather, it's an organization that aims to end poverty by building empowered communities. Volunteer activities continuously happen all around the country as a concrete response to ending poverty in the Philippines. Like these volunteers, you too can burn with the passion to serve our country and be part of our global army of nation-builders! Email info@gk1world.com to volunteer in the place nearest you!

Last May 23-27, 2013, 80,000 volunteers in 37 different locations around the Philippines answered the call of nation-building with the Bayani Challenge 2013. Click on these links to read more:
* Bayani Challenge Home Page
* BC 2013 Day 1
* BC 2013 Day 2
* BC 2013 Day 3

* BC 2013 Day 4

* BC 2013 Day 5