When Leah Gayo, a Bisaya, died while delivering her baby, I thought it would be helpful to the family if we raised money for their needs. I talked to husband Norman who said that Leah’s parents wanted her to be buried in her birthplace. That meant transport and travel expenses. I told him, “Our organisation, Katilingbang Bisaya sa New Zealand (KBNZ), will try to raise NZ$1,000.00.”
The donations started coming in, snail pace. Out of the blue, I received a call from Cherie Howie, a reporter of Herald on Sunday, who sought our position on the death of Leah in a publicly-run hospital. As the interview was about to end, she asked if our group was helping out the family. So I told her about the fundraising we had initiated, mentioning the KBNZ emergency fund bank account number.
On the day the story was published, the deposits still came in trickles. As we checked the account on Monday evening (6 May), we were totally flabbergasted as the donations had reached $7,429.96 with two donors putting $1,000 each. By the end of the campaign, the total donations reached $11,524.00.
In the follow-up story, it was published: “Mel Libre, president of the Filipino community group that was helping Gayo, said: "We feel thankful that New Zealand is a very caring society."” I made that conclusion as majority of the donors did not have Filipino surnames nor looked familiar to us. These were complete strangers who had good hearts shown by generous actions and some kind words.
True that New Zealand is a rather liberal nation in terms of individual freedom and loosened morals, but I know that the seeds sowed by its ancestors who were mostly religious and God-fearing (one will notice the numerous old churches in many areas) remain ingrained in the hearts of most people. This must be the reason why New Zealand is consistently among the one of the most liveable, most peaceful and least corrupt nations in the world.
We turned-over the donations to Norman during Filipino Family Day on June 1. He was thankful and emotional about the helpfulness of so many individuals, both friends and strangers. I sent a note of thanks to Cherie and the Herald, to which she replied, “I think the Filipino community is doing an awesome job of supporting Norman, but happy to hear we have played a small part also.”
Secularism is the seeming rule in New Zealand; but there is no New Zealander who does not know how to sing with pride, “God Defend New Zealand,” more so, when the nation’s rugby team, All Blacks, play to win.
God remains in the lips of New Zealanders, as it does in their caring acts. And if you go to Wikipedia, it says “God’s Own Country, often abbreviated to Godzone or less often Godzown, is a phrase that has been used for more than 100 years by New Zealanders to describe their homeland.”
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