PSHF Lighthouse Learning Center Inc.
United Nations Day 2025
UN Day is the second of five events in our school calendar. The theme of this year’s UN Day was:
“Promoting Peace, Unity and Global Partnership”
We decided to hold our UN day celebrations in the school this year as opposed to holding them in the South Town Center as there was still some nervousness among parents about holding a big gathering with the September 30th Bogo earthquake still fresh on everyone’s minds.
So instead, we held six ceremonies over two days with our pupils divided into six groups of 10 to 14 pupils according to their regular class times.
Each of the ceremonies followed the same pattern - an opening prayer, the singing of the "Lupang Hinirang", a welcome address, the children introducing their chosen nation, dance presentations, the giving of awards and to conclude a mass dance.
Teacher Khrystal was our very energetic emcee for the six ceremonies and she did a fine job in instilling a buzz of excitement with the children and the parents, all dressed in the costumes of their chosen countries.
Right from the beginning, there were scenes of drama among the children; Maleyah representing South Korea was tearful as she awaited her turn to introduce her country. She was excused and went back to her seat only to come back a few moments later and participate in a dance number with great poise.
There was joy for the mother of SPED pupil Jyk, representing Tonga and wearing a grass skirt and tribal headgear. This was Jyk’s first time to make it through to the end of a dance number and his movements were correct - his mum was proud of him.
Another boy to stand out was Calian, the only Junior prep pupil in the third ceremony. He was representing Venezuela and wearing a sombrero. He impressed us all with his courage in doing a solo dance.
Then there was Senior Nursery pupil Rhys, representing the UK. Within seconds of the start of his dance routine, his classmate Karl, representing Spain was lying on the floor and not long afterwards, Jesus, representing Russia walked off the stage and back to his mother telling her he was tired! In the meantime Mr. UK went on with his dance routine unabashed to be performing alone.
It should be mentioned that the above mentioned Karl may not be a dancer but according to his teacher he can already read and he is just 3 years old.
When it came to the announcement of the best costumes for boys and girls in each batch, there was one time when there were only two girls in the running. I wondered how emcee Khrystal would deal with the delicate matter of announcing just one winner. Khrystal was totally unfazed by this; she asked for the drumroll just like she had before, waited a few seconds for the tension to mount and announced that the winner was Frea, representing Nicaragua. I looked over at Chrisly, representing Lebanon and there was not a hint of disappointment. Shortly afterwards, Chrisly was happily dancing and singing along to “Hello to all the children of the world’ with her classmates.
There was a funny moment in one of the early ceremonies when Mary Blanche approached Miss Turkey (Yunice) to ask her if she could have her costume. The answer came back ‘ but Miss, it won’t fit you”!
One last but touching memory of our UN day celebrations was when our SPED pupil Ion, introduced his country Papua New Guinea to the audience. His mother had written what he had to say on a white board which she held out for him to read. Even in front of a lot of people, he read it out perfectly which made his mother very happy.
That wraps it up for our UN Day celebrations in 2025. I should like to thank our teachers for preparing a wonderful programme and for being so kind and patient with the children.
The accompanying photo journal will give you, the readers, a glimpse of the wide array of costumes we had on display; parents made a big effort to have their children dressed to represent their chosen country so meaningfully. Thank you.
Richard Foster
November 2025