Sweet Letter of Appreciation

Your donations are making a difference in people's lives. What a great feeling to know this and to know they appreciate your kindness.

School Life

The Garden Project

Hello,
Well, we are back in Australia and miss the kids in the Philippines already. Thank you for trusting in us and giving all your support to the projects at Maravilla Elementary School. We want to send a big "thank you" to the people who raise money and give their donations to Give Children Hope. Without them, the decisions of who to help and where to help cannot be made. I know all the information and photos I send will show them that their money is getting very well spent, and helping in ways they will never know. Because of such programs as the free feeding, you can see the children have bigger smiles. I have some letters here some pupils have handwritten and thanked everyone. In these letters they say how much more they are motivated to learn and go to school now. Such positive showing of their emotions! The biggest reason they are motivated, is because they know somebody cares about them. If someone is willing to donate to them, they are going to make you proud of them by studying hard. The gardening program at the school is well under way and that, also, has had a positive effect on both parents as well as the school. There seems to have been a spark of hope ignited in their little community. There is still some skeptic people there wondering if anything will work, but I am sure when they see positive results, they too will want to join in.
I will attach some photos, hope you can use them.

Ian Horton

More Great Photos

Don Cooper From Ian Horton to us. "A million thanks to Give Children Hope for all their help and support to the children at Maravilla. There is now a free feeding program and garden at the school, everyone there is so very excited and cannot thank you enough. Thanks also to everyone who donates to Give Children Hope because it only takes $10 to feed 150 kids here once a day."

Word from the Philippines

Hello,
Today the 21st of July, the school celebrated their National Nutrition Month. Here every month there is a subject they celebrate and July just so happens to be Nutrition month. We took this opportunity to start the feeding program today, so from today onward the kids will be getting fed everyday of school. Thank you all for your support. The teachers still want to raise some pigs and are very determined to make it work. They will just start with 2 pigs and see how they go (that will also happen this week or next). The garden is starting to look like a garden now and not just a lot of weeds. We kickstarted that project and bought them some extra tools and seeds which they have started planting.

I am confident we are leaving all the responsibilities here in very good hands. It is going to be sad to say goodbye to all these kids. I have visited the Philippines quite a few time before but only in hotels or in the city of Iloilo. This is the 1st time for me to stay in a small community like this and be part of everyone`s lives. It has been very fun,exciting, and rewarding to be able to help these people. At times it has been very difficult for me to hold back my emotions, To be a part of and live with people who are experiencing such poverty can take it`s toll on you mentally. I want to help everyone and find it hard to have to say no to some people sometimes. I will send you a pic of a boy who broke my heart, we planned a big day out with a bunch of kids and parents to the swimming pool. When all the kids were climbing in the truck someone spotted a little boy hiding behind a banana tree with a very sad look on his face. When he was asked to get in the truck he said he couldn`t because it was the weekend and it is his job to look after his grandpas 100 ducks. Every weekend, this boy does not get the chance to play with other children, because his family relies on the ducks getting fed and walked to the ricefield so they can swim in the water. If the ducks do not swim, they will not lay eggs. They only get 5 pesos for every egg, and that`s if the duck even lays one. I gave this boy 150 pesos and he collected his ducks and went home. We also bought him some school supplies and a school bag. There are so many stories of hardluck and poverty to tell. I really feel for these people and the hurdles they face everyday, but they just take it on the chin and carry on with life. They just do what they do for survival and know they have to look after themselves because their government is not going to help them. I wish I could win the lotto and live here to help them. Anyway, I will keep you updated and hopefully you can get to talk to the teachers on the phone at some stage.


Ian Horton

More on the Philippines

Here are some pictures of the living conditions near the Philippines. The Give Children Hope foundation is wanting to implement school lunch programs in three other schools along with the Maravilla school. For now we are grateful to be able to give warm lunches to this small group of children.

Maravilla School Lunchtime

Don Cooper, an active member of Give Children Hope, has shared these photos of the Maravilla lunch program. These are very hungry children and this meal may be the only one they get for the day.

Brazil Update

Brazilian family in Porto Alegre receiving food basket last month.