Sandiganistas Integrated with the Children from the South through Pottery...

Last May 7, 2007, a group of Sandiganistas honored the invitation of Dr Marichu Carstensen, the founder of Lipeno Children's Foundation, to witness the latter's 9th Summer Art Workshop all the way down to Lipa, Batangas and to be teachers of pottery for a week. With Dan Mendez' prowess in sculpture and Janeth Calantoc and Maan Serias' ability to handle and play with kids (as shaped during Institutional Visits), the Lipeño children aging from 6 to 17 years old experienced to "throw" and shape, and then dab-with-water and then shape again clays which enabled them to produce figures of pots, candle holders, boats, faces, and a lot more.

Lipeño Scholars
Lipeño Children's Foundation is an initiative of Dr. Carstensen and her husband Mr. Morten Carstensen. Their scholars mainly come from the public schools around Lipa who have exuded academic excellence but due to financial strains may not really be able to achieve a holistic approach toward development. Mr. and Mrs. Carstensen, aside from providing means on how the scholars may definitely get into school all the way to tertiary level, also expose the children to different visual arts. Dr. Marichu, being a connoisseur herself (she actually owns Doc's candle), would make sure that the children would have month-long summer art workshops by personally inviting potential instructors and procuring the necessary art materials. She even offered a space in her Doc's candle compound where the fourteen children can learn, practice, and hopefully unearth their art skills. For this summer's event, aside from pottery which was scheduled on the last week, the kids were also exposed to sketching and oil painting.

Experience and Observations
As one of the 'teachers', the 4-day experience in Lipa was actually more of an opportunity for the Sandiganistas to see an event of another true social service. Mr. and Mrs. Carstensen and the Lipeño Children's Foundation can indeed be touted as a picture of paying-it-forward and altruism. The scholars, on the other hand, were a representation of very engaged and engaging students. Anyone witnessing how they finger and play their clays will also be in surprise just like how we were. They are all smart, imaginative, playful, and appreciative of their surroundings. Both the sponsors and the scholars are worthy to be envied - the sponsors for their gratuitous acts and the children for their skills and talents. – Janeth C.

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That workshop was really amazing! I was inspired by Ms. Marichu and her outreach programs, the way she look at life and how she was able to help so many people, especially those children in having good education and developing their potential to be great individuals in the future. The children were very friendly and very determined to learn and I guess their status in life did not become a hindrance for them. I learned a lot from that experience. – Maan S.