When Arpie & D’Multivitamins go on a concert tour, audiences are treated to more than just their trademark musical comedy.
Arpie & D’Multivitamins engage audiences at their concerts to join their mission to feed poor kids in the Philippines – their stomach, their minds, and yes, even their soul.
The band also saves part of their income to fund outreach missions.
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Arpie, aka Rafael Patriarca, is a psychologist and fashion designer by profession who left his corporate job and created a unique musical group named D’Multivitamins.
Arpie is a natural born comedian who propelled his band to become “the country’s most sought after band, labeled as the best medicine for body and soul.”
“I want to inculcate something to my bandmates – that we need to have a mission beyond music. I wanted to put a deeper meaning into what we do. Having this kind of musical skill, there must be something bigger. We did not ask for this, it was given to us, and we need to share it as well,” Patriarca said in a recent Philippine Star interview.
D’ Multivitamins has been together for 18 years working on humanitarian projects such as fundraising concerts for typhoon victims, feeding program, medical mission, toothbrush and toothpaste campaign, song for a notebook drive, Project Sta. Maria Orphanage, donate a book project.
These projects paved the way for Arpie and D’Multivitamins to dream bigger – thus the birth of Feed Hungry Minds (FHM).
The Feed Hungry Minds Library Inc. is a non-profit social development organization which conducts outreach programs to help develop reading among students who do not have the means to access books. This public library collects old books and reading materials and old computers from friends and volunteers.
FHM also conducts feeding programs, provides scholarships for very poor students and free tutorials and livelihood seminars for young adults, and facilitates donations for their adopt-a-student program and adopt-a-school program.
The FHM mission of Arpie & D’Multivitamins spans 3 major projects:
- FEED THE STOMACH project is focused on feeding communities in depressed areas, victims of calamities and tragedies, and even street children. FHM feeding programs are the starting point for the two other FHM projects.
- FEED THE MIND project aims to help develop reading among students who do not have the means to access books. FHM provides scholarships for very poor students and free tutorials, and facilitates donations for their adopt-a-student program and adopt-a-school program.
- FEED THE SOUL project aims to provide basic service needs for the family like medical missions, livelihood programs and seminars for young adults and parents, and providing relief in times of calamities and unfortunate tragedies.
Arpie & D’Multivitamins is currently out of the country to get mission support and, at the time of this writing, is in Australia for a concert series. Donations and volunteer work details for FHM can be found on the FHM site.
