Since 2005, the GoAbroad Foundation has helped direct critical funding to support more than two hundred children living in disadvantaged circumstances in the Philippines. For the last seven years, the Foundation has worked diligently with it’s on-the-ground non-profit partner to provide children from low-income families with the means to pursue mainstream education, to undergo skills training and talent enhancement, to have access to available medical care and to provide the children with a wide range of opportunities that they would have otherwise never had access to.

As time passed, these children got older, their enthusiasm for life grew and their dreams of success never once diminished. As children graduate from High School their life sits at a crossroad as they long and dream for the chance to continue their education through to college. Children such as Kristine who is featured in a short video dreams that her love of numbers will one day help her to become an accountancy major.

In almost all cases, the vast majority of moderate and well-paid jobs in the Philippines require at least a college diploma and it is thereby becoming more necessary for Filipino youths to complete the transition from high school to college in order to achieve prosperity for both themselves and their families.

Unfortunately for many individuals, their dreams of becoming college graduates is swept away by the reality that their family does not have the economic means to support the payment of various college related fees and quite frankly there is not enough local projects to efficiently deal with the number of students facing such circumstances.

As a result, the GoAbroad Foundation has launched its next Cause in cooperation with Volunteer for the Visayans to help provide funding to support the college education of children such as Kristine. With help, these young adults can achieve their dreams, complete college and welcome in hope for themselves and their families.

]]> http://www.goabroad.org/scholarship-support/feed 0 http://www.goabroad.org/philippines-dumpsite-project http://www.goabroad.org/philippines-dumpsite-project#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:19:09 +0000 chris http://www.goabroad.org/?p=301 Continue reading →]]>

The GoAbroad Foundation has just help generate over $4,000 of aid to help construct a Community Center for a community based non-profit, non-government organization located on the island of Leyte in the Philippines.

The Philippines suffers from a number of socioeconomic issues that have been exacerbated by years of economic decline, political instability and  corruption. As of 2010 the National Statistical Coordination Board estimate that approximately 26 million people in the country live beneath the nation’s poverty line, making less than one dollar a day. As a result of the said poverty, there continues to be underlying issues and a lack of resources for national social welfare initiatives, education projects and public health services, making the existence of responsible non-government organizations ever more critical. As a result, the GoAbroad Foundation feels extremely honored to have helped contribute to the growth and further development of one of the Philippines most reputable and professional non-profit organizations.

The Community Center located at the heart of a rural community will act as a staging area for future sustainable development initiatives that aim to improve the lives of low-income communities in the northern barangays of Tacloban City. In particular, the center will offer support to the Dumpsite Project, a small grassroots project which aims to rehabilitate children working or previously working in a nearby dump by giving them the means to pursue mainstream education and escape from the limitations of poverty.

Children and adults scavenging for recyclables such as plastics and metals at the city dump continues to be a major societal problem and is something that is closely monitored by our community partner in the Philippines. For the most part, children decide to work in the environment in order to supplement the families income. On a good day a child can make between 20 to 30 pesos which is sometimes enough for them and their family to achieve a second meal.

Not only is there an immediate health and safety concern regarding children working in such an unsanitary and potentially dangerous environment, but what is equally if not more concerning is that many children drop out from school so that they can scavenge more frequently at the site and as a result achieve a much greater bounty. When children decide not to go to school, it only tightens the shackles of poverty and prevents communities from ever developing their full potential. This makes the existence of the Dumpsite Project even more crucial.

Our supported project in the Philippines has helped to rehabilitate some of the children working at the site over the past six years by offering them a chance to go to school and to receive social welfare support. The construction of a community center in the barangay in which most of the children live is a significant landmark in the progression of the project and will most definitely help nurture more rewarding projects in the future.

The center will feature a small classroom for educational enhancement lessons, as well as a small kitchenette, bathroom and storage room. In the years that follow, we hope that the center will act as an environment for the birth and growth of further sustainable community initiatives that will aim to address the lives of disadvantaged families.

Funding for the project was primarily channeled through Facebook using the Causes application, you can read up more about this existing project and pledge further support by visiting the Dumpsite Kids Project Cause or by donating through the GoAbroad Foundation.