THE Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development (Canvas) and National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera recently launched a book for children—and it’s for a good cause.
BenCab Activity Book for Children: Imagine, Play, Color, Learn is one of the book projects for Canvas’ advocacy, billed as “One Million Books for One Million Filipino Children”.
Canvas is a nonprofit organization who works with local communities to promote and hone children’s literacy. Its “One Million Books for One Million Children” campaign aims to inspire children to love reading by donating its award-winning books to public schools, hospitals and disadvantaged communities all over the country. The campaign hopes to promote independent reading and creative thinking in Filipino children, while also exposing them to the best of contemporary Filipino art and literature.
The proceeds for every single purchase of the book, which features the artworks of BenCab, will give two children in poor indigenous communities an opportunity to have copies they can call as their very own. The activities in the book were written by Karen Joy Foronda.
“This is the very first time we’re doing a book that is purely an activity book and we hope that it will infuse in the children the desire to learn more. It’s not enough that they learn how to read, but what we really want is for them to love books, and we believe that it’s art that will get them to do just that,” Canvas Founder and Executive Director Gigo Alampay said.
The organization partners with fellow non-governmental organizations that work directly in remote regions and marginalized communities in the Philippines to distribute books to different areas in the country. To date, it has already given over 100,000 books and it plans to give out more in hopes of reaching its 1-million target.
Throughout the years, Canvas has been able to gather support from highly esteemed painters, such as Elmer Borlongan and Rodel Tapaya, among many other talented Filipino artists. “It’s a special experience both for the children and for us. And the reason we are giving out the book is the hope that the book, or one of the pages in the book, will inspire a child to somehow make the world a better place even in their own little communities,” Alampay added.
BenCab is also hopeful that Canvas will continue this endeavor, sharing that the project is a great avenue to give underprivileged kids who cannot afford their own books an opportunity to understand and enjoy art.