When we visit Palawan we always bring school items like pencils, crayons and paper for the tribe kids living nearby our farm. You should see the smile on their faces, they are so happy that they have something they can use in school. They are very poor but you can make them smile easily. They don’t have the latest barbie dolls or PlayStation’s, they haven’t even seen a computer in their life but they are content.
They love going to school but sometimes they cannot go to school because they have no notebooks and other items they need. Especially Judy Anne. She is 11 years old and is a very bright girl, as is her brother Erwin who is 7 years old. I contacted via Internet organizations that help children but they do not support yet children in Palawan. That’s why we started to look for other ways.
While researching, we came across a group called SgFreecycle in Singapore. SgFreecycle is an Internet site where one can offer excess items for free to people that are interested. You may also request items that you need and if somebody has it, they may contact you.
I started to use the site to get pre-loved children’s clothes for the tribe children. Surprisingly many people wanted to help. We were able to fill a box of one cubic meter of clothes and toys. We sent it via cargo to Palawan and distributed it in December last year when we went to visit our farms. Everybody was very excited when they received the clothes. They are pre-loved but to them it is like new!
We realized maybe we can help more children, not just the ones that we know of. I can probably collect books that children in Singapore do not use anymore. We contacted the headmaster of the public elementary school of Estrella Village and when he heard about our plan he was ecstatic. We pledged to adopt their school.
It is sad to say that the public schools in the Philippines are very poorly equipped. In rural areas most of the children have never even seen a book with colored images.
When we came back here in Singapore we went to work right away. We ordered some boxes from a shipping company and posted ads on SgFreecycle requesting pre-loved books, board games and learning materials. Quickly we got overwhelming response from many people willing to help. We had to limit the donations to school items only. We paid the cost of shipping the boxes, our part of the donation.
We hope that more people will follow this example. School education is the best tool to fight poverty. If you have books that your kids do not need anymore or can collect books and school items, send them to public schools in less privileged countries.
Adopt a school in less privileged countries – they really need your help. If we want to see changes in this world, we need to be the change we want to see – just like what Mahatma Gandi said.
