Path to Education - Aklan Phillippines

Aim

Need to raise £600 for concrete pathing for a school destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. I was contacted on Facebook by Carol. Please help

Project aim

Need to raise £600 for concrete pathing for a school destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. I was contacted on Facebook by Carol. Please help

About the project

It is quite a story going back to 2013.  I noticed reoccuring messages for a number of days on my organisation's facebook page where I worked and one I administered.  It was asking for any help to pack boxes at the weekend following the Typhoon Haiyan.  The messages struck a chord with me although most days I was weary and tiredmanaging my own community organisation and a centre as a CEO, Chinese Welfare Association Ni and on the Friday evening I finally private messaged to offer help to the unknown request. I had a slot free on Saturday free after catching up with my own 2 boys and housechores were caught up.  The message replied asking if I could find more boxes, small ones!  A long story short, I did find smaller boxes after asking at the Chinese supermarkets I knew and walking up and down a street full of supermarkets, and small shops.  The wine and local sweet shop were excellent!  My car full of boxes I finally got to the packing area as it got dark (this was November in Belfast!)

Jay who was to meet me wasn't there.  Although having worked with minority ethnic communities it was my first time in a long time I saw so many Filipinos and in Belfast working away packing whilst the children played around the boxes, stacked boxes and trolleys!  I was greeted pleasantly and told that packing was under control but they were very happy to have the smaller boxes!  So I left a little bewildered when Jay phoned.  Could I get more boxes for Sunday? Ps. thanks for the help.  

That evening I got a lovely message from Jay thanking me and could I get a forklift?  This was Sunday.....I managed to find a forklift driver but a forklift was impossible. Again I went down with my car full of small cardboard boxes and left them down.  This time I met Jay and he insisted I be there for the first container to leave the next day and that the Mayor would be there. Jay insisted that I be there and that an important man was coming back from the Phillippines who was out there during the Typhoon Haiyan.  So I got my morning work done on Monday, found 45 minutes to squeeze before my next appointment and missed the Mayor but not this important man who I was keen to hear about Phillippines. I forget to mention here that on my travels that weekend the Chinese community and the local Chinese supermarket raised a donation to give to Jay.  

On arrival I met Jay, his lovely wife Indirah and family who had given up time to pack the boxes and see the first container off with a wee team of other Filipinos off duty.  I was introduced to Ian Campbell Ten Foundations and Ian brought out his phone to show the devastation the Typhoon had caused and the work they were doing to repair and go out to areas for aid relief.  I was struck at these vivid real images and that the humble cardboard box when full of wee goods would make an impact!

So touched I had started posting about the recent events on Facebook.  I went on to run a Hotpot Chinese fundraiser where many came from local, Filipino, Thai and others to support and raised £600.  Christmas went and past and as we turned into 2014 I was contacted by Carol!

Carol contacted me on Facebook from the Phillippines and was unknown to Ten Foundations but had seen I had worked on Typhoon Haiyan. Carol mentioned Aklan had been badly affected and was still in need of help.  I put her in touch with Ian who went to her area of Aklan that January to help.  Since then Carol has shared stories, friend to friend, woman to woman and lives to lives.  Carol had lived previously for a short while in Belfast but her relationship broke down and had to return to Aklan as a single mother with 2 children. I'm also a single mother of 2 boys and lived a career path to keep strong and help others.  We connected!  The power of Facebook!

It may seem all surreal however it was in the middle of May 2014 when the Ten Foundations got their charity shop in Belfast and at it launch a friend of Carol's who lives here, Roy went to his car to bring me a gift from Carol.  He had had it some time.  That day I wore a beautiful blue chiffon and cotton dress that I got from Ten Foundations shop the day before when the stock had just arrived.  Unbelievably when I opened the soft parcel it was a blue scarf!  It matched perfectly as a belt and I loved the combination!  

You can say I share an affinity with Carol and as I worked volunteering to organise Ten Foundations gala dinner in October last year,  Carol mentioned that the school was still not repaired, the roof, the damages, the concrete etc was all damaged.  She hope by May for the annual commeration services for the School it could be fixed in time.

Today Carol has been in touch with me and I have asked her how it was all going?  It is great to hear the Department of Education has shouldered the costs of the roofing which damage parts of the school building particularly the library however the concrete paving of 15000 pesos around £600 was not yet found.

I hope you can help me to help Carol and this school have the adequate foundations and restore its paving.  Please help many to pave their success in education by literally donating to help restore good concrete paving on the grounds of the school.  I know it would be awful if we had to walk over damaged grounds where trees have uprooted and it doesn't help the environment of learning when there is so much disrepair.

Thank you for reading and I am eternally grateful that you are helping Carol and many others at this school.

Eileen

Please see the pics below and the official letter from the school.  I hope we can support their commeration service of the school have a happy result by 1 May 2015!  Salamat, thank you.

This project closed unsuccessfully on 6th May 2015