We are all striving every day. It may be in different doses and extremities but it boils down to the fact that we are all having a hard time. Through this, Filipinos’ resilience and hard work are coming through. This can be seen in the way most of our friends are now selling online and how most of us go the extra mile to support them. The concept of Bayanihan is not strange to Filipinos. It has been introduced to us at such a young age with a very clear image: a group of people carrying a huge house from one place to another. Without knowing it, through your small acts of kindness, you are one of them. 

The support local buy local product campaign has been going around for years now. It only resonated with a massive impact when the pandemic happened. Without the big companies to back us, most of the ones who stood up are our local farmers, local frontlines, and local businesses who tried their best to keep us all afloat. By supporting local and buying local, we are also supporting the local small businesses in Davao. These local small businesses are providing for you in as much as they are providing for their family. With this, each one you buy from them means so much more than you will ever know. Perhaps it will help a struggling family buy that much-needed gadget for an online school or simply indulge mom with a warm, scrumptious meal for the night, things are so much more than what they seem. 

The Malagos Garden Resort, known as one of the best resorts in Davao City had to close our doors when the pandemic started. Since then, we kept afloat through the Malagos Homegrown Produce. The main goal was to make sure our local farmers won’t be left behind. Thus, the shift to an online selling platform of fresh produce. The plight of our local farmers through this trying time has not been easy. More often than not their fresh produce rots way before they can make a profit from it. This is why now more than ever, we have to keep supporting and buying from our local farmers. From this act, we are not only helping them get by but are also helping make sure that the next generation has something in store for them. Hard times often require drastic actions. Studies show that more and more farmers are now selling their lands. This means hundreds of crops and wildlife have to be displaced. Through our small conscious actions of help, we can prevent this from happening. 

According to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have shown that generosity can be highly contagious. In other words, when we act kindly toward one person, that person is much more likely to be kinder toward others in the future. This creates a ripple effect of kindness. It starts as a single act but then spreads outward affecting many more. As the famous author Mark Twain said, “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”