{"id":32755,"date":"2021-03-04T11:08:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T11:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/?p=32755"},"modified":"2021-03-04T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T11:08:41","slug":"dubais-birthday-fairies-to-reach-children-in-philippines-and-senegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/03\/04\/dubais-birthday-fairies-to-reach-children-in-philippines-and-senegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai\u2019s birthday fairies to reach children in Philippines and Senegal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lockdown group delivering birthdays celebrations to underprivileged children in UAE are expanding to help spread cheer and reach more families in need.<\/p>\n<p>Birthday Bliss, an initiative started by Dubai expat Iris Maria, funded the celebrations of eight children under the Hope Charity Foundation in Philippines during one event that saw all their classmates attend earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Sayril Cahilig Seniel, chairman of the foundation, wrote in a thank you Facebook message: \u201cThank you so much Mika Coquia (Iris Maria), Birthday Bliss sponsors and volunteers for helping us celebrate life, spread happiness in hard times and remind tribal families experiencing extreme poverty that they are worthy of love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They also shipped a container of essential and party items to three orphanages in Senegal due to arrive at the end of this month.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32759\" style=\"width: 426px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32759\" class=\"wp-image-32759\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/03\/2-hope-kids-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"416\" height=\"312\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32759\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Hope Charity Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_32758\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32758\" class=\"wp-image-32758\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/03\/1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"311\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32758\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Datu Embangan School<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fondly dubbed Mama Mika or the Fairy Godmother of the birthday fairies, Mrs Maria had initially set out to sponsor three local childrens&#8217; birthdays in June 2020, as the family tradition of celebrating her daughter\u2019s birthday by helping underprivileged children in the Philippines couldn\u2019t happen due to school lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-32780 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/03\/featured-image-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>Mrs Maria said: \u201cI believe in the transformative power of birthdays for these children \u2013 it doesn\u2019t only uplift them or make them feel like they are recognised but they feel valued. I just wanted to make them feel that there is a community that feels them and is with them, despite all their struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her Facebook posts snowballed as many wanted to help and they ended up sponsoring birthdays of 32 children that very month.<\/p>\n<p>Karen Acasaran Morales, a volunteer who later became a core team member, said: \u201cI believed in Mika\u2019s vision. Her genuine kindness to help, her passion, her energy, her dedication is unwavering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just always remember that we are doing all these just to see the kids smile on the birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Birthday Bliss has grown into a Facebook group with almost 2,000 members, and has gifted 243 children their special \u2018birthday in a box\u2019, containing cakes, presents and decorations from generous sponsors.<\/p>\n<p>[metaslider id=32827]<\/p>\n<p>The team of volunteers accept applications from impoverished families and coordinate the collection of donations. After sanitising and segregating the gifts, the birthday fairies match each child with a baker and deliver the boxes with a knock and birthday song.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Maria added: &#8220;This is not really a big thing, but we hope to reach children who are really in need.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/search\/top\/?q=birthday%20bliss\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/search\/top\/?q=birthday%20bliss<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The charity group has gifted hundreds of children presents despite its short history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":32782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[64,227,210],"class_list":["post-32755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charity","tag-charity","tag-facebook","tag-international"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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