Schools in the Philippines are classified according to the level and type of curriculum. There are 3 major levels: elementary, secondary and tertiary.  Preschool levels like nursery school and kindergarten are offered in private schools and daycare centers, but are not required to enter primary school. Public schools are subsidized by the government to provide free education at lower levels and to help with the cost of education in higher levels.

While basic education is free in the Philippines, additional fees, books, school uniforms and school supplies are not and are a heavy burden for many families to bear.  They can’t even afford the most basic needs such as clean water, food and nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter.  Having an education continues to be out of reach for many impoverished children.  It breaks my heart because without an education there is little hope for them to escape poverty.

School year begins the second week of June, and my goal is to help over 300 in-need children to be able to attend school.  For as little as $20.00 you can give a child a head start toward a better future.

We are very excited to announce that we have officially obtained 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. This is extremely exciting news for Children’s Hope Fund.  Thank you so much to Justin Pless and Pless Law Firm for all their assistance with the process.  This means that we can now receive donations that are tax-deductible for those giving.  We are dedicated to raising funds to help improve the lives of children living in poverty in the Philippines.  Our goal is to give children who aspire to improve their lives access to education – it’s their best chance for a better future, a chance to escape poverty.

We are grateful for the fantastic amounts of support we have received from our friends, family and colleagues.  Thank you to everyone who helped and supported us.  We are so excited for the possibilities and opportunities to help even more that this provides us, and we’re looking forward to the rest of 2010 and beyond!  You can help.   Support us.  Get involved.  Once again, thank you!

I came across this article on CNN the other day about Smokey Mountain in Manila which really resonated with what we are trying to do here at Children’s Hope Fund. It illustrates many of the problems regarding how pervasive poverty is in the Philippines, and how it affects children and their ability to get an education in order to one day escape it and have a better life. That is one of our core beliefs here at CHF – that education is the key for these kids.

Smokey Mountain is basically a mountain of garbage. It was closed in 1990 and high-rise housing projects went up around it, but many people live on and around the “mountain”, scavenging amongst the garbage to survive. The children the author met while there do not go to school because their parents can’t afford the cost. While public schools are free to attend, there are additional fees such as school supplies, books, uniforms, food, etc., which many parents are unable to pay for.

Children’s Hope Fund is trying to help with this problem by supplying school supplies to “in-need” children like those mentioned in the article and, through our meals program, provide them a healthy meal once a month. It’s a story which plays out every day in the Philippines, where over half the population lives below the poverty line, and many live in conditions which we in the USA would find difficult to comprehend.

We just posted pictures from the February and March meals program feedings on the Activities: 2010 page.  Please check it out to see the kids you’ve helped.

We would like to thank everyone who supported our free meal program this month. Hot meals were delivered to children in Tramo, a village in Bacoor, Cavite. There were approximately 335 children who attended the meal program, some of these kids in this area frequently skip meals or eat too little. A dish called arroz caldo was served. Arroz caldo is a Filipino comfort food – a porridge with rice, vegetables and chicken cooked in chicken broth that is eaten in many Asian countries. Filipinos love arroz caldo and will eat it anytime of day. I am a big fan of this dish. I remember living in the Philippines stopping at roadside food stalls standing in the rain while eating arroz caldo with so many people and jeepneys passing by. It’s quite good.

This activity was conducted by volunteers who unselfishly shared their time and effort in the preparation and distribution of the meals. Thank you to all who made it possible for these kids to enjoy a much needed meal. I would also like to thank the people of Bacoor who volunteered their time to help facilitate everything. Please check out the pictures so you can see the children that you’re helping.

Parents angry that their children were not given enough rice, as authorities promised. (source: Associated Press, via gulfnews.com)

Manila : A group of parents torched a school in the central Philippines after complaining their children weren’t given the food promised by a government program aimed at boosting school attendance, police said on Tuesday.

The gutted walls were all that remained of the one-story Gaib Elementary School in Masbate island province, said provincial police chief Ed Benigay.

No one was hurt because the school was empty when it burned down overnight, he said.

“It was done by some disgruntled parents who reportedly got mad at some teachers over perceived discrimination in the school’s nourishment program,” he said.

He said the parents accused the teachers of not giving their children enough rice.

Under the government’s Food for School program that seeks to encourage school attendance, each student in impoverished areas is supposed to be given a kilo of rice every day.

The arson left nearly 150 students aged 5-10 without a classroom, Benigay said, adding that important records also were lost.

Police said no arrests have been made but they will file charges soon.

Over 400 students were fed a hot meal when we hosted our monthly meals program at Bacoor Elementary School on February 18, 2010.

We’re committed to these kind of school meal programs to help improve children’s health and increase school attendance, retention and improve learning. Limitations on funding limit the feedings to once a month at the present time, but we are hoping to expand this program to conduct school meals more frequently and to serve additional students as additional funds become available.

This activity was conducted by our volunteers, who were joined by a group of 2nd year high school students from St. Michael Institute, a local private school. Thank you to all who made it possible for these kids to enjoy a much needed meal. I would also like to thank the people of Bacoor who volunteered their time to help facilitate everything. Check out the pictures to see the kids we helped.

Just a few days ago, I received a letter from a mother in the Philippines. Her name is Erlana. Her one year old boy, Al, is very sick. He was admitted at the Philippine General Hospital on January 11, 2009. He was diagnosed to be suffering from malnutrition and cardiomyopathy.

Cardiomyopathy is a serious disease in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed and doesn’t work as well as it should. Al needed to undergo continuous medication which his parents could not afford to support, as they are a low income family, a fisherman. Their earnings are barely enough to pay for one meal a day.

Each day, each week, each month, many children die in the Philippines. This is not because the doctors are unskilled or incompetent. These children die because they are poor and their families cannot afford medicine and treatment. It was heartbreaking reading this letter. More often than not the endings of these stories are not so happy. Right now, I don’t have much money to donate however I will try my very best to help.

I do hope I can make people aware of how trying the lives of these children are. There are no words or pictures to describe the depth of poverty these children live with every day. No one has a choice in when and where they are born, they simply must survive as best they can. I am now asking, in fact I am begging and praying for a miracle that somehow, someway, a donor, a gift, a moment, and saving grace comes and saves these children.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this cause, this past Thursday, January 21, 2010 hot meals we’re given to over 500 students at Bacoor Elementary School. The majority of them are children living at or below the poverty line. Lack of food is often one of the challenges that children face at Bacoor as some families do not have the means to purchase it. We’re committed to this kind of school meal programs to help improve children’s health and increase school attendance, retention and improve learning. Limitations on funding limit the feedings to once a month at the present time, but we are planning to expand this program to conduct school meals more frequently and to serve additional students as additional funds become available.

This activity was conducted by volunteers along with the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers who unselfishly shared their time and effort in the preparation and distribution of the meals. Thank you to all who made it possible for these kids to enjoy a much needed meal. I would also like to thank the people of Bacoor who volunteered their time to help facilitate everything. Please check out the pictures so you can see the children that you’re helping.

It is very hard to believe that not only has another year come and gone, but another whole decade has come and gone. At times we do not take action because we think we can only do a little and it won’t make a difference. I’m sharing my journey that proves that even doing just a little can make a difference. This is how the Children’s Hope Fund project got started.

It began in July of 2009. I woke up one morning and realized that I had ignored my heritage. I grew up in Cavite, a Filipino slum. Growing up was very hard. I moved to the United States at a young age and immediately had a hard time fitting in. I was so ashamed of where I came from and how I grew up fearing that people would judge my background and that they would not like me because of it, so I pretended I wasn’t that kid. I was so out of touch and in denial until that day in July. I got online to see how things have changed since I was there and what I found shocked me. I thought I had it bad growing up, but in the time since I have been away the level of poverty in Cavite has increased tenfold. I decided right then to help these kids as best as I could. The next day I booked a ticket to Manila without a plan or extra money to help these kids. I wanted to make a difference even if just on a small scale. So I began developing a plan and started sharing my childhood and my dream to go back to the very slum I was born in and help as many kids as I can with friends, colleagues, and family. I am lucky that many people have stepped up to give their support. The dream became a reality and it was a huge success, hundreds of children were fed, clothed, and given school supplies and medicine. The greatest part is that this is only the beginning.

Our goal for 2010 is to raise enough money to purchase and distribute uniforms and school supplies to 400 students at the start of school year in June. Additionally, we are committed to the School Feeding Program which provides one hot meal per month to impoverished school children living in the Philippines. There are over 1,000 kids at Bacoor Elementary School who need help, but our goal is to help the neediest kids first, those who will have to skip a school year because they could not afford the required uniform and school supplies.

This morning I was thinking of a quote from Edward Everett Hale – “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do.”