Tulong at Alay, PAgmamahal ng Kabataan : Pandemic Intiative

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

What have we felt? What urged us to do this? What is it that we realized?

When we first planned to build TAPAK, we analyzed the main problems of society. As we continue to observe, we see the major problems of the community. Regardless of the transforming environment due to the constant modernization, long-lasting problems that tend to be impossible to solve are still there. Thus, we, the TAPAK team, found the right opportunity to solve the problems that caught our attention. Last year, we chose to prioritize poverty and lack of resources. The deprived and oppressed in our community are still suffering from the problem of deducing what to do to gather money for their everyday needs. Nevertheless, due to the pandemic, our mission to help the poor was canceled in reason of the safety protocols.

We discussed and understood the situation we are facing right now. We thought of the right action that should be done to prevent the struggles in our reality. We listened to each other’s suggestions and opinions on how we can initiate effective change. As St. Dominic Savio said, “I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.”

At first, we decided to focus on Empowering the Youth. Most of us went through difficult circumstances that greatly affect our Mental Health. As the quarantine period continues, we have encountered different events and situations that trigger our mental stability. Moreover, Social Media has become more open for the people, especially to the youth. Hence, we wanted to influence our fellows to become empowered youth and responsible social media users.

What happened to us? How did we execute our mission? What were the problems that we have faced?

Due to the pandemic, we are not able to perform our missions for the poor. We can’t give anything as most of us also experienced difficulties during the quarantine period. Nevertheless, we did our best to not let those difficulties hinder our passion to help.

As we have established a website last school year, we used it as an instrument to at least help our fellow youth. We shared bible verses every day. Also, we opened an account on different social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Spotify, TikTok, and opened our official website. We used this platform to share awareness and to advocate. However, like other youth, we stopped posting. Relatively, we all have suffered from stress, breakdowns, and other mental health issues. Our capabilities to empower other people decreases.

We had a meeting last March 31, 2021. We decided to get back on our feet and come back stronger than before. We are going to execute our mission and start being the light in this sinking situation.

When things go well again and the classes are back, we plan to speak to every section in the year level of grade 9 to recruit new members who will continue our steps. Those who, deep in their hearts, want to pursue missions to slowly contribute to change starting from themselves. We hope to make TAPAK not just a group of students but the unity of people who are empowered and willing to give themselves to others. We hope for more missions and opportunities for the group and a beautiful journey ahead of us. Again, this is TAPAK, Tulong at Alay PAgmamahal ng Kabataan, inspiring the youth to share whatever they can and want to give. We believe that small steps can lead to big changes. What can we do during this time of pandemic?

We have launched several projects such as the Marahuyo and TAPAK for a Cause, we are maintaining our Social Media activities active and ongoing since most people have social medias. We have expanded our social media platforms and we are using them to our advantage. Scheduled posts every week about different events and feast days as well as motivational posts is what we are doing the past few months. As of July 31, 2021, a new set of TAPAK Officers have been nominated and they took in charge for uniting the members and for giving them tasks to post in the social media accounts. With the new members, TAPAK has 22 outstanding members and this became a new start to the TAPAK Organization as it gave hope that we will be continuing in the future as the organization grows. Recently, TAPAK had conducted a Cleansing Project, now left with 18 members and are up for recruitment.

Facebook: TAPAK (https://www.facebook.com/tapak.orgph) Instagram: @tapak.orgph (https://instagram.com/tapak.orgph?utm_medium=copy_link) Spotify: Marahuyo (https://open.spotify.com/user/9t33ucch9ggo3kx9664lnemsl? si=37f86c9b3fe343e6) Tiktok: tapak.orgph ( https://www.tiktok.com/@tapak_organization) Youtube: TAPAK (https://youtube.com/channel/UCAufGas3LvlkG6RSTnS1bsA) Email: tapakorganization20@gmail.com

𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 🌿 ❤️