Good morning all. When I was in Mindanao my friends and I helped some communities in the very poor countryside. We bought things for the local school and school children (books, pencils, crayons, posters, pens etc) and provided simple food packages for the households. I would like to try and do something similar in the local area around Dumaguete. So if anyone has any Filipino friends/ contacts that are involved with this, or are living in such an area, please message me so I can talk to them and see if we can assist. Have a great day in this beautiful place
Orville at Jamrock occasionally does things like a lunch program for kids and projects for improving small schools. Otherwise (just throwing darts here) I would either go directly to a school or a barangay office. To get other people involved, maybe start a FB page / group. Post flyers in the resto-bars.
My advice...keep it simple and see that the recipients actually get what you are offerring......so many in-betweeners only too willing to siphon off your help.
If you are on Facebook, you can contact one of the two "AMBC NORC" (All Motorcycles Brand Club, Neg.Or. Chapter) team members. They do charity rides for schools and elders around Negros Oriental on a regular basis.
Be careful of expats too. If you have two expats trying to organize something, then it's an immediate clusterf**k. Two people might be doable, but 3 is right out. Of the 3, you get at least 2 idea people who are so brilliant with their ideas they can't be bothered to actually try to execute on anything. If poor sucker who has to work doesn't perform up to the standards of the idea people, then it's time for the idea people to take over leadership of the project. On the one hand, this wasn't ideal. On the other hand... more BRILLIANT ideas! I mean, why just stop at school supplies? We can change the world! Oh, and we can hire my wife's brother to hand out flyers with some of the donations. Or we can use this service from my business I just started which would be perfect for the task. Work guy, are you taking notes? You can't just tell idea guys to f**k off, because then they get their feelings hurt. Now they are questioning your motives. Maybe you are benefiting some way. Maybe you are a con artist. Maybe they'll report you or even take you to court. I don't know how motorcycle clubs manage to organize. Maybe they just do a last man standing bare-knuckle match to pick the leaders in order of how long each of them survived before tapping out. Too much of a PITA.
Most of the MC's (OGBU, Takosa, Roadrunner, Outsider, recently Broders MC) in this province help the poor, either through organization of a direct donation/goods/supplies etc/fund raising or with the help of higher up politicians. Probably, with the next upcoming election, it may be better to wait till after June to organize something like this, or you may find it has been 'hijacked for 'vote buying', which is not unusual.
Depends on what you want to do I suppose. As in getting involved, doing something, rolling your sleeves up volunteering type of involved versus simple donation. Both are fraught with difficulties. On the one hand, you never know who’s nose you are going to push out of joint by undertaking a worthy community-charity service or simply being unsure that your money or time is being used well. My advice here is to stick to the well trodden path of officialdom - be they UN missions, well respected International charities, respected NGOs etc. Quick google searches will give you what’s on the ground options. Sitting your event or act alongside that will give you the respectability or neutrality your (worthy) intentions need. Good luck, tread safe and let us know how things go. C
We supported the Friendship Home Foundation Orphanage in Valencia. I would call and see what their needs were and, if they needed anything, we would go shopping, if not we would drop a check by. It was especially fun to see all of their faces light up when we would show up with McDonald's.