White Canvas and the poor school children

I first met Dino Dimar when he volunteered to join our Babuyan Islands Mission in the summer of 2011.

He was then a graduating student of Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas. In February 2014, he was with a group of artists and volunteers who were on their way to Bontoc to deliver school supplies. But in a tragic turn of events, the GV Florida bus that they were on flew off into a 200-foot ravine, crashed and claimed the lives of fifteen people and injured the rest. Dino, a visual artist and a photographer, survived but suffered a severe blow on the left side of his body. He underwent rigorous physical therapy and was back on his feet in no time.

It was after he recovered from the trauma of the accident that he taught of a personal advocacy that he called White Canvas. It is a non-government organization that brings school kits and recreational materials for the children of far-flung communities in the Philippines. It holds strongly on the values of giving, the strength of faith and the simplicity of kindness.

By December of 2014, Dino successfully launched White Canvas in Australia. He crossed Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney sharing the story of how White Canvas came to be and the stories of the lives of the children in the islands of Babuyan. His stories touched a lot of generous souls which enabled him to raise a substantial amount of donations. In return Dino gave them paintings which he himself painted on white canvas as tokens of gratitude.

Soon after Dino returned to the Philippines, the physical preparations for the Babuyan Islands Mission 2015 began. Using the money donated by the people from “Down Under,” the team of volunteers bought school supplies for the children of the island up north. To reach the farthest outskirts of the country and provide assistance, to inspire other people to pay their blessings forward, and to simply make a child smile, is the goal groups like ours wants to achieve.

This coming June 12 to 14, 2014, White Canvas under the initiative of Dino Dimar, organized an outreach project called “Akyat, Aklat, Pasasalamat.” We tried to raise 1,000 school kits to be given to the school children of Talubin Elementary School in Bontoc and Buscalan Elementary School in Kalinga, both located in the Mountain Province. White Canvas has its roots in the slopes of Bontoc. It was the people of that community who without hesitation, put their own lives in peril to descend into a deep ravine to help the survivors and to retrieve the bodies of those who perished in the accident. For Dino Dimar, it is only fitting that he gives back to the unsung heroes of this community who took care of people in need that they do not even know. It is his way of giving back for their gift of honest service and kindness towards strangers through that ordeal.

White Canvas is the representation of the lives of poor school children in remote areas. A clean slate where they can paint every vibrant dream they can think of, and its volunteers will be there to help make it into reality. White Canvas believes that life is too precious to leave our songs unsung, our stories unwritten and our dreams unrealized.