PHILIPPINES, NOVEMBER 2010 – By day, they may be typical employees of the country’s largest broadcasting company, but in their free time, Bimbo Papasin and Jan Carlo Sarmiento team up to create books for children.
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Papasin is a segment producer of ABS-CBN’s top rating programs, Umagang Kay Ganda and TV Patrol Weekends. “I’ve been with the company for 11 long years, covered different stories from features to hard issues and public service,” he says. While there, he met Sarmiento, a graphic artist for prime time programs such as TV Patrol Weekend and Sports Unlimited.
Papasin has also written other books for children, among them At Muling Ngumiti si Haring Araw, a children’s story book that tackles global warming, and Great Grandpa Tree, a tale of friendship between man and a century-old acacia tree. He explains that he got his inspiration for the story from his coverage in Marawi City in Mindanao during the 2007 elections. “I came across a family who for a while were put in an evacuation center when rebel Muslims invaded their hometown,” he says. “The father told me of the hardships and the ordeals his family went through. His kids stopped going to school, all their belongings were left behind, the farm he was tilling was razed to the ground.”
From this story, he thought of the story of a young girl with a Muslim father and a Christian mother who manage to keep their family intact. This became “Ang Batang Nangarap ng Kapayapaan” (The Child Who Hoped for Peace), which recently won the award for Best Children’s Book at the 2010 Catholic Mass Media Awards.
Sarmiento, who also teaches 2D animation to Multimedia Arts students at his alma mater, the College of St. Benilde School of Design & Arts, reveals that illustrating the book was a challenge. “When Bimbo gave me the story, I had a hard time visualizing it,” he admits. “The themes of war and religion are heavy for a child. So, instead of drawing the characters in a traditional way, I thought of using irregular shapes and dazzling colors. In that way, the child will be entertained while reading the story.”
Winning in the CMMA is not the end of the partnership. They are working on two stories for children of OFWs that aim to instill Pinoy values and consciousness about saving money.” The books will be published by an NGO for OFWs, Atikha, based in San Pablo, Laguna.
“Hopefully, these books that Bimbo and I are working on will continue entertaining children,” says Sarmiento. “I am proud that our stories are set in the Philippines, tackling current themes Filipino kids can relate to.”
