Well, I am 12 days away from finishing up the first month of my World Race and I've realized I haven't given you much information about what I am actually doing here. I have been volunteering for a non-profit organization called Food For the Hungry (FH).
The Philippines is currenlty the World's 12 most populated country with more than 94 million people. Over 40 million of those people live on less than $2 per day. Food For the Hungry was founded in 1971 as a relief program committed to helping the poor overcome hunger and poverty through sustainable development programs. Their main goal is education. Education of children, parents, and the community. Some of the services they provide are:
* Food/Feeding Programs
* Construction (homes, schools, and c ommunuity building)
* Disaster Relief
* Education
* Child Sponsorship
* Community Projects
* Health Fairs/Education
* Housing
* SKills Training
My team and I have had the opportunity to start a campus outreach program by going into a public school in San Pedro to provide education on values formation. The one thing that is so different from public schools in the states is their eagerness to teach values and morals to their sudents. In an effort to impart those morals and values believed to be important, we are allowed to share the stories of our lives, talk about God, and pray with the kids – yup, all in a public school. The students seem to really enjoy our conversation and we are enjoying getting to know them.
My team and I are also doing Community visits and Profile updates. This means that we are visitng communities where FH sponsors children. We are meeting the children and their families, interviewing them, taking pictures and writing profiles. We are updating current profiles to send out to sponsors and we are writing new profiles to create awareness and try to recruit more sponsors for the program. FH currenlty sponsors 170 children in San Pedro alone.
Amazingly enough, it only costs about $12/month to sponsor a child. If you are interested in more information about Food For the Hungry or sponsoring a child, please check out their website (http://www.fhphilippines.org/html/getInvolved.html).
