The Philippine Community Fund (a UK registered Charity) - a worthy winner of ‘Jenrick’s Helping Hand.’
Thank you to Les Phillips who nominated the Philippine Community Fund for Jenrick’s Helping Hand Charity Initiative. Les already supports this charity personally and wanted to give it a real boost by nominating it for the £1,000 half yearly award.
You can read the full entry from Les below:
The PCF is a small charity that works directly with impoverished children in the Philippines. The UK side of the charity operates from a small office in Southampton with only one full time member of staff. There are no large marketing budgets and no highly paid executives. The Charity was formed by Jane Walker who, whilst on holiday in Manila, took a wrong turning and came across a rubbish tip where many children were sifting through the rubbish looking for items to sell. This experience moved her to set up the charity and she has since moved to Manila to oversee the operations there.
The main drive of the charity is to provide education for the children, they are currently constructing a new school, built entirely of recycled forty foot shipping containers. The picture shows what the finished school will look like. When this is completed it will be able to provide schooling for all of the children who currently work on the rubbish tip. Once at school the nutrition and health of the children can be monitored and support given to the families so that the children can stay in school and get the education and skills which will give them a chance to escape from this cycle of poverty. The average life expectancy for someone living and working on the rubbish tip is 40 years.
My involvement with the charity started two years ago and I currently sponsor an eight year old girl called Annie. Just £15 per month pays for all her schooling costs including uniforms and food. It’s quite humbling to think that such a small amount can make such a difference to a child’s life.
This year the PCF has come under increasing pressure due to the worldwide increase in food prices, which has resulted in many of the children leaving school and returning to forage on the rubbish tip in order to help feed their families. The practical response to this is to provide each child who attends school with a weekly supply of rice and tinned foods to take home to their families. This enables the children to contribute to the family and to stay in school and continue their education. However it puts extra demands on the charity’s funds and could possibly delay the completion of the new school project.
If the PCF was to receive the £1000, it would make an instant and significant impact on the lives of these children and help to give them the chance to grow up away from the rats and flies of the rubbish tip.
Website: www.p-c-f.org
Nominated by: Les Phillips – Simon Holdings
Tags: Jenrick Charity Work, Philippine Community Fund, Simon Holdings Charity Work
