History is best known for one thing: its ability to repeat itself.
And since Daniel Razon has fathered many great ideas that glittered and made their way to human consciousness in the past, it is normal to expect equally great ideas to surface from this man.
Among the many public service undertakings spearheaded by Daniel, the Isang Araw Lang or the Just One Daycampaign is by far the biggest and most influential to date.
And like all his past creations, this highly-commendable endeavor started with a simple idea and turned out to be a brilliant, not to mention effective, cause.
Emergence of Isang Araw Lang
On UNTV 37’s Good Morning, Kuya!, Kuya Daniel together with a few veteran broadcasters were talking about the poor Filipinos’ predicament – on how and who should help them. Kuya Daniel then poses this question:
“Let’s face it. Not all Filipinos need helping. There are Filipinos who can help … What if a doctor or lawyer gives just one day of his service to his fellowmen for free? What if any Filipino who has the capacity to give sacrifices just one day for his fellowmen in need?”
And the Isang Araw Lang advocacy was born.
The Isang Araw Lang advocacy is all about doing good even for just one day. By serving others with one’s capabilities, abilities, skills, and profession, a person can do a great amount of good. To spread the great cause, Kuya Daniel has started a number of public service deeds that continue to inspire individuals and groups on an international level.
Aside from the free services rendered through Daniel’s UNTV program, Good Morning, Kuya!, he also supports theKamanggagawa Foundation‘s Transient Home, orphanages being maintained by the Members Church of God International, and a free college education program for hundreds of scholars of La Verdad Christian College in Apalit, Pampanga.
To raise funds for these services, Kuya Daniel released albums, a movie, benefit concerts, photo exhibits, coffee-table books and even benefit games.
As an advocacy for change, Isang Araw Lang campaigns that anyone can make a big difference with just little changes in their daily lives. Opening up a channel on Youtube.com, the campaign video clips show among others how much money can be saved if everyone just stopped smoking for a day could have helped fund the education of millions of children or how much food are being wasted on a daily basis that could be used to feed millions of hungry Filipinos.
The campaign generated and continued to generate a legion of followers. In response to Daniel’s call for change, the youth group, Bible Readers Society (BRead) supported the Department of Education’s “Brigada Eskwela” project that aims to clean, organize and repair school grounds for incoming public school students of school year 2009-2010. This project has successfully cleaned 44,000 public schools in the country.
Motivated by a new kind of Philippine charity at work, he has inspired thousands of youth for the Isang Araw Lang campaign to clean up Sapang Alat. Located at Caloocan City, Philippines, the 30th dirtiest river in the world has been cleaned up by enthusiastic youth in just one day.
In Mindoro, Philippines, celebrity Ina Alegre gave slippers to the people in support of Kuya Daniel’s campaign.
And because of the many helpful projects under the campaign’s wing that extend to all parts of the country and even abroad, the number of people joining his cause continue to grow in number.