Perhaps, the most important lesson during this pandemic, is that we need to be better at adopting healthier habits. This prompted Ivanna de la Torre to create When the World Sneezed.
The picture book is De la Torre's attempt at explaining the world's new normal to her child. She thought grownups could also benefit from having a material that encourages early graders to have deeper conversation on health.
When The World Sneezed is edited by Antonio Torralba with Ukraine-based illustrator YulyaFedkiv. It is applied for ISBN from the National Library of the Philippines and printed in China through Alibaba.
"I've learned from the programs I've launched for MNCs, governments, and international organizations that to effect change, we need to fully understand the issues, be focused on the long-term impact, have measurable outcomes, and mount creative, visually compelling initiatives," she said.
De la Torre is set to go on a book tour with select schools and barangays. She's also running a Read and Donate campaign where she donates part of the book's proceeds to scholarship funds of schools such as the Mano Amiga Academy.
De la Torre has been in the corporate affairs for over 20 years, advising clients across Southeast Asia, launching advocacies in the Philippines such as health literacy, disease prevention and vaccine confidence.
The skills she honed through professional experience, the social consciousness that she inherited from her family having run schools for the underserved for more than 70 years, and her personal promise to her child to leave behind a better, greener, kinder world are what further moved De la Torre to create impactful initiatives such as When the World Sneezed.
