Happy Soles for Happy Souls

Wazzup Pilipinas!

With its iconic cheerful colors and fun prints, every pair of Havaianas flip-flop is sure to transport a person into a happy state.

So when Tropical Retail Company, Inc.- All Flip-Flops, retailer of the well-loved quality footwear, Havaianas, in the Philippine donated 5,000 flip-flops to Operation Blessing Foundation Philippines, Inc. for the victims of super typhoon Yolanda, everybody was naturally ecstatic.

The Havaianas flip-flops, ranging from baby to adult sizes, was delivered by Chinnie Alpay, Executive Assistant and Administrative Coordinator and Candice See, Recruitment officer, at the Operation Blessing headquarters in Pasig City. The donation was received by Peter Kairuz, President and Chief Executive Officer of CBN Asia and Operation Blessing and Dr. Kim Pascual, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Operation Blessing.

“We are extremely grateful for this huge donation of Havaianas. This is a company with a really big heart. We assure you that these beautiful Havaianas flip-flops would bring smiles to the faces of the Yolanda survivors,” Peter said.

Chinnie said that it was only a couple of days ago when their Managing Director Geronimo Begre, informed them of the company’s intent to help the Yolanda victims through Operation Blessing and everyone in the company immediately went into action, completing the 5,000 flip-flops for donation in a matter of 3 days.

“We are blessed that we could be of help. Mr. Begre is so happy that all the employees worked together to make this happen. Nagkapit-bisig po talaga kami para dito. ,” Chinnie said.

She, likewise, informed the Operation Blessing team that this is the first major humanitarian donation of their company but they will explore more ways to partner with Operation Blessing Philippines in order to help more people. Operation Blessing will distribute the 5,000 pairs of Havaianas flip-flops to Yolanda victims in Bantayan Island, Cebu coinciding with the screening of the Superbook animated series, trauma counseling, program intervention and healing art, as part of the rehabilitation process immediately following the relief efforts.


Contributed by Anne S. Tiangco