In the early part of January several days of very heavy rain caused the Kagayan River to overflow inundating many parts of Cagayan De Oro City with several feet of dirty polluted water. Thousand of people were forced to leave their homes and take shelter in places like basketball courts and school gymnasiums. Many of the worst affected areas were the poor squatter communities living along the sides of the river and under the bridges. The waters have receded now but it will take a long time for people to recover from this disaster, especially the poor who have lost everything. Now our objective of supplying tools and equipment to help people start their own small businesses becomes even more important. We need money to fund the shipments.
Saturday 31 January 2009
Thursday 29 January 2009
Where It All Began
It all started about six years ago, when a family member who worked in Christian Missions visited the Philippines and saw the needs of people there. A few of us started sponsoring children from a poor squatter community to enable them to go to school.
As word got about several friends joined in and it just grew until it made sense to set up a charity to manage things properly and to benefit from being able to reclaim tax on the donations under the UK 'Gift Aid' scheme.
Since then we have established a number of good local contacts and partner organisations whom we work alongside to help people escape from the trap of poverty and to advance education.
Although child sponsorship remains an important part of what we do we have also got quite heavily involved in helping individuals and small groups of people by training them and providing tools and equipment to set up their own small businesses. We have contacts in the UK who collect, refurbish and supply tools for self reliance projects across the world. We started by helping fund the training of 10 ladies as dressmakers. We then supplied them with a set of sewing machines, some dress patterns, materials and the like and they are now up and running as a dress making workshop.
Towards the end of 2008 we shipped almost a ton of computers, tools and equipment to four different organisations. One was a school for children with a wide spectrum of disabilities. they wanted to teach some of the older children some craft skills such as carpentry. The other three recipients were Christian missionary organisations working with homeless children. Again their plans were to teach the older children carpentry, sewing and mechanical skills so that they will be able to obtain employment when they get older.
We have now received two requests to supply carpentry, mechanics and agricultural tools to set up workers co-operative training and employment schemes in poor slum areas. In order to cover the shipping costs for both consignments we will need to raise about £ 1500.
Our biggest and most exciting project is to raise money to build a home for orphaned and abandoned children.
A piece of land has already been bought and plans drawn up. We have some money in hand but need another £ 70,000 or so to get the building completed. This will provide accommodation for 28 children plus staff to run the home.
Of course there will be ongoing running costs too. The House of Joshua (as it is to be called) will not be just another institution but a proper home providing care and support in a family like environment. Children will be able to attend school as well as learning other important life skills. You can find more information on our website http://www.conroyrendoncharity.co.uk/ and from our partner organisation, The Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. who will be actually building and running the home.
You can also keep up to date on everything that is happening by joining our Facebook group and by subscribing to this blog.
As word got about several friends joined in and it just grew until it made sense to set up a charity to manage things properly and to benefit from being able to reclaim tax on the donations under the UK 'Gift Aid' scheme.
Since then we have established a number of good local contacts and partner organisations whom we work alongside to help people escape from the trap of poverty and to advance education.
Although child sponsorship remains an important part of what we do we have also got quite heavily involved in helping individuals and small groups of people by training them and providing tools and equipment to set up their own small businesses. We have contacts in the UK who collect, refurbish and supply tools for self reliance projects across the world. We started by helping fund the training of 10 ladies as dressmakers. We then supplied them with a set of sewing machines, some dress patterns, materials and the like and they are now up and running as a dress making workshop.
Towards the end of 2008 we shipped almost a ton of computers, tools and equipment to four different organisations. One was a school for children with a wide spectrum of disabilities. they wanted to teach some of the older children some craft skills such as carpentry. The other three recipients were Christian missionary organisations working with homeless children. Again their plans were to teach the older children carpentry, sewing and mechanical skills so that they will be able to obtain employment when they get older.
We have now received two requests to supply carpentry, mechanics and agricultural tools to set up workers co-operative training and employment schemes in poor slum areas. In order to cover the shipping costs for both consignments we will need to raise about £ 1500.
Our biggest and most exciting project is to raise money to build a home for orphaned and abandoned children.
A piece of land has already been bought and plans drawn up. We have some money in hand but need another £ 70,000 or so to get the building completed. This will provide accommodation for 28 children plus staff to run the home.
Of course there will be ongoing running costs too. The House of Joshua (as it is to be called) will not be just another institution but a proper home providing care and support in a family like environment. Children will be able to attend school as well as learning other important life skills. You can find more information on our website http://www.conroyrendoncharity.co.uk/ and from our partner organisation, The Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. who will be actually building and running the home.
You can also keep up to date on everything that is happening by joining our Facebook group and by subscribing to this blog.
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