A Philippines project to help the children
Added to website: 03 November 2006
Back in February, the Philippines suffered it’s greatest loss of life in a natural disaster when the village of Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte Province was engulfed by a devastating landslide. Some 3000 people were killed. 279 children who happened to be in a school nearby were made orphans. 800 evacuated families are still homeless.
I’m planning a project to help the children left behind and I want your help with this project. Please read on.
I went to the landslide site in August and was shocked at the scale of the devastation. Two miles from the foot of a great gash in the side of the mountain I stood on rock and mud which covered this village within minutes. All that remains now are the odd rooftop and uprooted coconut palms.
Dag Navarette from the Provincial Disaster Management Office took me to a makeshift village to where 800 families from high-risk areas have been evacuated. They are currently living in little huts with walls and roofs made out of blue plastic. The children play games with elastic bands on dusty streets and in muddy puddles. Eight Hundred Families!
We also went to a new village. One of two being built to house the homeless and the orphans. Foreign aid has funded the building of houses, a school, health centre and other essentials. Everything they need is there, except somewhere to play.
Our project involves building a playground. In agreement with Rosette Lerias, Governor of the Province of Southern Leyte, a central plot of land in the new village has been put aside for the construction of a children’s adventure playground with landscaping and gardens and a place for the grown-ups to sit and watch their children play.
This playground would unashamedly be a luxury. Everything else that these poor children have been provided with is essential and the aid will not extend further. My hope is that this playground will become a social centre of the village and will also serve as a village based memorial to those who died. There is also talk of a second playground and who knows where it may lead.
To make it happen though, we need you help.
I need a team of enthusiastic people to help raise funds to finance the project, to pay for the building materials and a designer, and to pay for the costs involved in getting a dedicated team out to the site. You know you can do this through school projects, employers charity funds at Christmas, by tapping in to your University or work unions. Every little counts.
I also need a team of volunteers to come to the Philippines in August or September 2007. The Playground Project will fly you out there, and provide you with basic food and accommodation, to spend two weeks constructing the playground from scratch to the last lick of paint and the last tree. It will be a tough time in hot, sweaty conditions – working all day and sleeping in makeshift accommodation. At the end though, we will unveil the playground to the hundreds of children who so desperately need somewhere to play and socialise – and you know that every huge Filipino smile and giggle will bring a tear to your eye.
These are early days but there are few to lose. I need to know now if you are interested in helping, in any way- or if you know someone who can. Whether you can help through providing moral support, by coming out to the Philippines to help construct the playground or providing essential financial and logistical support, I need to hear from you now.
Please don’t wait. Just reply now. You don’t need to commit. But I do need replies within the next seven days to let me know if this is a go-er or not. Just reply to this address letting me know your thoughts and if you can help. Please don’t ‘reply to all’ and, if you really don’t want any more communication about this project then please let me know. No hard feelings!
A quick reminder
3000 people including all the children at the elementary school died on 17th February 2006.
90% of the village population were wiped out.
279 Children were made orphans.
800 Families are homeless following the disaster.
About 40% of Filipinos, or more than 30 million people, live in abject poverty. Most of those are in rural areas like Guinsaugon.
Thanks
Justin Gosling
For more information on this project, please contact Justin Gosing email: justingosling@hotmail.com
