In light of last year’s Typhoon Yolanda, Samsung has spearheaded an effort to enable teachers and students in Palo and Tacloban, Leyte to participate in an art therapy workshop.
Samsung Electronics Philippines Corporation (SEPCO) decided to harness to power of art to ease souls affected by adversity. The program entitled Lakas Pilipino: Lakas Natin, aimed to provide a creative way of expressing and going beyond their traumatic experiences as a result of the devastation brought by the calamity.
SEPCO, together with the Visual Arts Committee, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and Philippine Science High School–Eastern Visayas Campus, conceptualized and developed the project in collaboration with the Municipality of Palo and Professor Joey Tañedo, Chairman of the Visual Arts Committee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA). The company also provided Samsung equipment: tablets for electronic creation of art and photography and television screens for the projection of their works.
Students were tasked to shoot photos around the area and edit them using the Samsung tablets. In this activity they were free to take pictures of whatever reminded them of the bright tomorrow ahead, and enhance the shots with drawings or quotes that would make the photograph more personal. One photo taken by the students stood out, as it showed a scene wherein a sprouting seedling was in the foreground of other still-standing trees which survived the typhoon. “As new trees spring up, so does hope in our hearts,” she shares.
Lakas Pilipino: Lakas Natin ended with huge success—although the people were once bound by hardships, now they are even more united with a sense of belonging and hope. They have indeed found a support system in one another.