Christmas greetings!

We wish all your friends and donors MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you for all your support in 2010. It is our fervent hope that we enjoy your continued support and cooperation in the coming year.

From the Board of Wimler and also on behalf of our scholars and local partners.

ETWA supports the setting up of the two school-based poultry projects in M’lang, North Cotabato

The Europe-Third World Association (ETWA Netherlands), a group founded in May 1990 to increase awareness among European Patent Office ( EPO) staff of the problems facing developing countries - the "third world", agreed to fund the setting up of two school-based poultry projects in M’lang, North Cotabato (Mindanao, Philippines). ETWA works together with people in developing countries by helping to finance small-scale self-help projects aimed at promoting sustainable development at local community level.

The approval of the proposal boosts the efforts of WIMLER to support the members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of Dugong Elementary School and M’lang Pilot Elementary School to generate income in order to help poor children to go to school and also to help the schools raise funds to purchase necessary school materials and equipment. This will help the teachers acquire the necessary teaching materials to improve learning environment of the school.

It is the first time that Dugong Elementary School will implement the poultry project while M’lang Pilot Elementary School will expand its project from 300 layers to 600 layers. The project will directly benefit poor pupils from the two schools and the members of the PTA. The PTA members both teachers and parents are managing both projects.

Municipalities of M'lang and Bansalan accredit WIMLER as one of NGOs operating in their areas

WIMLER has been recently accredited by the Municipalities of M'lang, North Cotabato, and Bansalan, Davao del Sur both located on the southern island of Mindanao as one of the non-governmental organizations officially operating in these areas.

The local government unit (LGU) is mandated under Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991, to promote establishment and operations of of the people's organizations (POs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to become active partners in pursuit of local autonomy.

The Sangguniang Bayan is empowered to accredit and recognize NGOs and POs thereby giving them with vested rights and privileges accorded to accredited POs/NGOs which includes participation in the deliberations on matters related to local development. It also accords vested rights to accredited NGOs/POs to officially operate in the concerned areas.

WIMLER welcomes this accreditation which opens possibilities to partner with the local authorities of M'lang and Bansalan in the implementation of its on-going and forthcoming projects.

View M'lang accreditation:

Page 1

Page 2

View Bansalan accreditation

NEW Resources from WIMLER

General information Wimler brochure01

Send a Child to School brochure V02

JENS' Birthday Wish: Send a child to school

WIMLER is happy to receive an invitation from Marco and Emilie Veringa of Tung Chung, Hong Kong that their son, JENS, will be celebrating his birthday on Saturday, November 6 at the Bahamas Clubhouse, Caribbean Coast, Tung Chung.

Happy Birthday Jens! We wish you an enjoyable birthday celebration with your loving parents and friends. Thank you for sharing your blessings with other children in the Philippines.

Below is the invitation Marco and Emilie sent to their friends and parents of Jens' friends.

Dear Parents,

Our kids been lucky to be here, having all the things they need, and a good life. Everyone has been generous to Jens, giving him gifts and presents, but since his last Birthday, we started to ask friends and his friends' parents not to give him present if possible but that's your choice to make.

This year we picked WIMLER FOUNDATION to support, so if you can find in your heart to donate money there instead of buying a gift for Jens. It will be very nice if with your help, he can make a difference in a child's life back in the Philippines through WIMLER's "Send a Child to School" project.

Thank you very much and see you at the party. Bring your SMILES and FRIENDSHIP with you.

Cheers,

Veringa Family

emilieveringa@netvigator.com

Information about Wimler Foundation can be found at their website: www.wimler.org

Building partnership to ensure poor children in M’lang, North Cotabato can go to school

M’lang, North Cotabato, Philippines --- Arnel is one of nine siblings. He lives with his father who is a farmer. His mother died several years ago. At 16, he should have already graduated from high school but he is still in the sixth grade and trying to finish elementary school. When not in school, Arnel works in the market doing odd jobs. In many poor areas in the Philippines, if children drop out of school and are old enough, they begin working to augment the family income, no matter how small their contribution may be.

“If not for the educational support, I will still be working in the farm or in the market because my father can’t afford to send me to school. This has changed with the educational support,” Arnel said after hearing that he was chosen by Wimler and the school as one of the scholars.

According to the Asian Development Bank, one out of five children in the Philippines never gets to attend primary school because of financial constraints while three out of every 10 drop out before finishing their elementary education. Not having an education would mean they will have a slim chance to get out of poverty.

Providing education is of the government. However, in a country where more than one million children are out of school, the Philippine government is presently not in a position to help all these children especially those living in far-flung areas.

How to support these needy children continues to be a big challenge. Fortunately, WIMLER found sponsors who are willing to support 20 most needy children in M’lang Pilot Elementary School. An agreement was also reached that while WIMLER works on sponsorship, the parents will also actively support the school, in cooperation with the teachers, in finding ways to help the children.

For instance, some children go to school without eating breakfast. To help them, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) started a school-based vegetable garden to support the school feeding program. The school also sells some of the harvests to earn some money to buy things the school needs.

Aside from the vegetable garden, the PTA members also started a poultry project as another potential source of income. Proceeds of the project will be used to support poor students. The project will also serve as a field school for the students and the parents.

“The students and the parents will have a chance to learn how to raise family-based poultry farm. They can sell the eggs or chickens and so they will have some money to buy their school supplies” Cyrel Defensor, the school principal of M’lang Pilot elementary School, explained. Moreover, “many of the children enrolled in the elementary grades stop going to school beyond sixth grade. When they go out of school, they will have a little know-how in raising chickens and earn money” Defensor added.

PTA members made a request for an initial investment fund covering 6-8 months until the chickens lay eggs. WIMLER was able to secure a small grant in the amount of Php 380,000 from Society of Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) through its Asia-Pacific office under their corporate social responsibility program. “WIMLER needs to figure out how the project can be introduced to the families especially as source of income for women. But this will be another intervention in the future,” Leila Rispens-Noel, president and co-founder of WIMLER said.

The first building block is laid. The construction of the poultry started on the first week of September. Teachers, parents, the local government unit, students, SWIFT, and WIMLER work together in M’lang to ensure that poor children have a place in the classroom.

About WIMLER: The WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress, Inc. is a small non-profit and non-governmental organisation. Our mission is to share, serve, stimulate, facilitate, and build partnership for sustainable development. We contribute to the development and advancement of grassroots communities through alternative approaches to socio-economic development, education, capacity building of communities and building partnership with like-minded organizations locally and internationally.

Website: www.wimler.org

About SWIFT:

The well-being of the communities we live and work in is engrained in SWIFT’s corporate values and we strive to demonstrate them beyond the confines of the company. SWIFT is committed to improving social and educational circumstances wherever possible; we seek to engage our employees and have established partnerships with One Laptop per Child, the International Polar Foundation, United Way, the American Cancer Society and the United Fund for Belgium. Our programme is co-created with the input of our employees and stakeholders, co-deployed with the help of volunteers, engaging by enabling our staff to personally participate, focused on where our support makes a difference glocal with major umbrella initiatives whilst fostering regional/local autonomy.

Website: http://www.swift.com/about_swift/csr/index.page?lang=en

Please view our albums:

School-based Poultry Project

School-based Vegetable Garden

Photos: Harvest Time, October 2010

On the Rights of the Child and 10-year-old pupils

2010.10.10

Celeste Murphy, Lauren’s mom, sent me an email message a couple of weeks ago asking if I am interested to speak about the rights of the child before 150 10-year-old pupils. I had mixed feelings when I heard this. I had given many presentations to various conferences attended by various groups: migrants, development workers, policy makers, etc. but I never had an experience speaking before a large group of children.
But the topic intrigued me most: The Rights of the Child. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is about children so I thought if I accept the invitation, I will have a chance to speak before the age group for whom the Convention was ratified for.

I finally accepted the invitation and several email exchanges with Michael Hogg, the teacher responsible of the event followed.

For several days I was asking myself how best I could communicate to the children about the Convention of the Rights of the Child in a manner that they will understand and appreciate it. The Convention contained 42 rights of the child and the more I studied each article, the more I am convinced that most of these children are already enjoying their rights. How would I make them understand that unfortunately, in other countries, millions of children actually are deprived of their basic rights? Would they be interested to hear about the plight of other children?

I decided to focus my presentation on the four basic rights of the child namely: the right to survival; the right to development, the right to protection, and the right to participation. Then, I would speak about why and how poor children are deprived to get education and relate it with the work of WIMLER.

I was scheduled to speak last October 8 at 9:00 am. I thought it was a good time because the children are not yet tired and hoped that I can capture their attention.


Shortly before the start of the presentation, I met Michael and Lauren who is instrumental why I was invited to speak before her schoolmates. Lauren has shared with her Mom about their lessons on the rights of the child and Mom Celeste in turn, informed her teacher about me and that was how the link was established.

When I saw the school campus of the Renaissance College, I thought to myself how really lucky these children are to have access to excellent education, school facilities and environment conducive for learning. It is different than from the schools which I saw in Africa and in the Philippines. In fact, the school campus is much better than the universities in the Philippines. The school auditorium is huge complete with the modern facilities, much better than the venue of some international conferences I attended.

Here are children who are very fortunate to have all opportunities to develop their talents and skills while poor children have to struggle to get education. According to the Asian Development Bank, one in five children in the Philippines never gets to attend primary school because of financial constraints while another three out of every 10 drop out before finishing their elementary education. Not having education would mean they will never have a chance to get out of poverty.

It was heartwarming to see the children so eager to hear about the situation of other children. Some perhaps could not believe that many children go to school without eating their breakfast and whose parents could not afford even to buy books. While some children hope to have the latest electronic gadgets, other children in some parts of the world long to have school bags, notebooks, and pencils.

Several pupils asked me why I started WIMLER. Instead of enumerating to them the objectives of the foundation which I co-founded with my family, I shared with them that when I was young; I was one of the poor pupils who desperately wanted to finish education. I have to stop a couple of years because my parents could not afford to pay for my college education. When I was young, I was like other poor children who worked by selling fruits an vegetables in the market to earn some money to buy my notebooks and pencils and other things I needed in school. When I was in college, I worked full-time during the day and studied in the evening to support my family.  I was fortunate that a Catholic priest in Chicago, USA whom I never met in person, provided me with some funds so I could finish my college education while the money I earned I could use to support my mother and 7 siblings. Without support from other, I will not become what I am today. By helping poor children, I just simply keep my promise to ”give back”.


It was a fantastic audience. I wish we had more time to answer the questions of the children. Perhaps, only a couple of them really absorbed what I said. It does not matter. One child is good enough because perhaps in the future, he or she can share the passion to care for those who are in need with another one.

I am deeply grateful to Celeste and Lauren Murphy, mother and daughter, and to Michael Hogg, Year 6 teacher at Renaissance College in Heng On, Hong Hong for giving me a rare opportunity to speak the rights of the child and the work of WIMLER to advocate for the rights of all children to live a full and meaningful life.

Leila Rispens-Noel

President and Co-founder

WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress


Check out the powerpoint presentation here

Project Description: School-based Poultry Project

Below is the brief summary of our school-based poultry project which is being implemented by the members of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of M'lang Pilot Elementary School.

Name of Project Holder	WIMLER PARTNERSHIP FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS, INC.
Project Description	School-based Poultry Project
Project Location	M’lang Pilot Elementary School Municipality of Mlang, North Cotabato (2 schools)
Total Amount of the Project	EUR 3,115
Sponsoring Organization	SWIFT Asia Pacific
Beneficiaries	Indirect: Pupils of M’lang Pilot Elementary School Members of Parents Teachers Association Direct: At least 20 poor pupils in the school
Project Duration	12 months

Objective
The overall objective of the project is to provide opportunities for poor children in Mindanao to acquire at least universal elementary education and to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals – modest as it is.

The specific objective of the project is to assist Dugong Elementary School and M’lang Pilot Elementary School to start the School-based Poultry Project starting with 300 egg layers (chickens) as alternative source of income to enable them to support more children and purchase much-needed school equipment and supplies. The number of egg layers can be expanded later in order to reach the economies of scale.

In this manner, the schools will have regular source of income to address the needs of poor children and the inadequate school facilities through their own efforts instead of relying from outside help. This approach is more sustainable and stimulates broad participation of the parents, teachers, and pupils.

The income from the project will help the schools upgrade the school facilities such as maintenance, constructing potable drinking water facilities, teaching materials, and support poor but deserving pupils. The project will directly benefit poor pupils and indirectly all the pupils of the schoolsthrough the improved facilities.

Egg Layer farming is a profitable business as the produce of farm provides high quality animal protein which is daily requirement of the human body. This can be started in both rural and semi-urban areas.

Day old egg laying chicks are initially reared for a period of 18 weeks. On completion of 18 weeks, the birds start laying eggs for the next 52 weeks.

Since the Philippines is an agricultural country, poultry raising can be very profitable. There is always a great demand for poultry products such as fresh eggs.

The poultry will also serve as learning tool for the pupils. Many of the children enrolled in the elementary grades stop going to school beyond sixth grade. If they leave school, they will have a little know-how on how to raise chickens and earn money. They can sell eggs and live chickens so they can possibly support their high school education. Raising chickens is not a tedious work which women and children can easily manage the poultry in their own backyards with the help of a small start-up capital.

Project Management

The project is collectively owned by the members of Parents-Teachers Association. The elected treasurer takes care of the financial management. If necessary, the bookkeeper of WIMLER will assist PTA in setting up the bookkeeping system. A separate bank account will be set up for the poultry project. The role of the principal is very important in this project. In both schools, the principals take the initiative in mobilizing the parents, teachers, linking with the local government, and linking with WIMLER. The school principals are the main focal persons and responsible for providing reports to WIMLER both of the project and the progress of the children in consultation with the officers of PTA. They also see to it that the project is properly implemented based on the budget allocation.

Project Activities

The following steps are needed to realize the project:

Initial Phase: Preparation:

1. Prepare the stakeholders for the project which includes providing adequate information, purpose, outcomes, duties, and responsibilities.

2. Identify the location of the poultry. Clear land, build a parameter fence, and construct a poultry shed capable of housing 300 day-old chicks by month 3. Chicken shed must be equipped with basic facilities to reduce mortality

Second Phase: The Construction of the Chicken Coops

3. Purchase construction materials.

4. Build the coop.

5. Find reputable chicken supplier. Purchase supplies and chicken feeds for the chicken coop. Also find a supplier of chicken feeds.

6. Identify qualified poultry project caretaker for 6 months and thereafter.

7. Identify a doctor/veterinarian to check the layers and vaccinate them and recommend vitamins and other supplements.

8. Identify relevant persons from PTA to take care of the selling of the eggs.

School Poultry Management

1. Disburse funds (honorarium for caretaker, fees and medication and to maintain proper financial control and management. Financial report must include all relevant receipts and supporting papers (procurements)

2. Report regularly the progress of the project including pictures showing all the important stages of the project implementation.

3. Prepare marketin

g report (income from harvest of eggs and expenditures of the poultry project).

4. Allocate net profit from the poultry project: 50% to sponsor additional scholars and 50% to put up additional facilities for the school such as laboratory equipments and computers to be used by the pupils and teachers.

5. Ensure the continuity of the project after funding is exhausted. This can be achieved partly by involving the community on a voluntary basis.

6. Exercise utmost

transparency and prudence in procuring construction materials, day-old chicks and medication and to select suppliers which can provide excellent products at reasonable prices.

7. Agree that the treasurer of Wimler will review the disbursement and expense reports and the corresponding receipts/supporting papers.

Status of the Project

The first chicks

September 30, 2010

The members of the PTA started constructing the poultry coop started around first week of September. The construction of lay

ing section is still in progress but the 300 chicks are already bought.

Team Involved:

Leila Rispens-Noel, President and co-founder of WIMLER
Overall Coordination

Mr. Cyrel Defensor, School Principal

Local Project Implementation

Mr. Joel Celestial, Head Carpenter

For more information, please contact:

Leila Rispens-Noel: leila.rispens-noel@wimler.org

Cyrel Defensor: cyroangelo@yahoo.com

About WIMLER:
The WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress, Inc. is a small non-profit and non-governmental organisation. Our mission is to share, serve, stimulate, facilitate, and build partnership for sustainable development. We contribute to the development and advancement of grassroots communities through alternative approaches to socio-economic development, education, capacity building of communities and building partnership with like-minded organizations locally and internationally.
Website: www.wimler.org
Blog: http://wimler.blogspot.com

About SWIFT:

The well-being of the communities we live and work in is engrained in SWIFT’s corporate values and we strive to demonstrate them beyond the confines of the company. SWIFT is committed to improving social and educational circumstances wherever possible; we seek to engage our employees and have established partnerships with One Laptop per Child, the International Polar Foundation, United Way, the American Cancer Society and the United Fund for Belgium. Our programme is co-created with the input of our employees and stakeholders, co-deployed with the help of volunteers, engaging by enabling our staff to personally participate, focused on where our support makes a difference and glocal with major umbrella initiatives whilst fostering regional/local autonomy.

Website: http://www.swift.com/about_swift/csr/index.page?lang=en

Please view our Album 1: School-based Poultry Project
Please view our Album 2: Progress of the project

Please view our Album 3: Progress of the Project, November 2010

Sponsor a Child this Christmas: A gift that makes a difference

Christmas is just around the corner. This is the season when we think of giving gifts to our loved ones. For those who have something to spare, we are asking you to include a child in your list.

Make a child’s dream to continue with her or his studies next school year. The child needs the following:

- a school bag

- school supplies

- new uniform

- new pair of shoes

- some amount to pay the entrance school fees

- and some amount to pay the entrance school fees

All the above will cost about Ph 2,500 (Euro 35-45/US$55) per child for the whole year. For some, it might be a small amount but for a child, it will help shape her or his future.

Make a child happy this Christmas and make a difference.

Those who want to send their Christmas gift, please email info@wimler.org Or you may course your donation through our Betterplace.org account: http://www.betterplace.org/projects/4156-send-a-child-in-mindanao-philippines-to-school

Thank you for your kind support and we wish you in advance Happy Christmas and lots of blessings throughout the New Year!

The WIMLER Team

UNICEF: Progress for Children Achieving the MDGs with Equity

New UNICEF study shows MDGs for children can be reached faster with focus on most disadvantaged Read more

Tears for Angelie Jayne Parawan, Grade 2

Angelie, 8 years old and Grade 2 pupil was one of the scholars of our partner organization, the Association of Bansalenos Worldwide. When I saw the pictures of the ABW scholars, one stood out. A girl with blond hair and very fair skin. I concluded she was an albino,with pale skin, light hair, pinkish eyes, and visual from a hereditary inability to produce the pigment melanin.melanin. Angelie was a beautiful albino. None on her physical feature that you can see that she had pigment abnormalities.

Angelie, was one of the 85 scholars of ABW and Wimler. Without the financial assistance, Angelle would not be able to go school.

She does not need her school bag , pencil and papers anymore. Angelie died of dengue fever, an acute mosquito-borne infection caused by the dengue viruses.We are saddened by this news. It is not fair. Angelie had the opportunity to finish Grade 2 but she was deprived of life at a very early age. Dengue fever is not deadly if attended right away. But then again, Angelie's parents may not have the money to pay for her medication.

Just like the case of many children of poor families, Angelie is deprived of many things in life: the right to education, shelter, health; the right to be happy.

Rest in peace Angelie. You are now among the angels in heaven. Perhaps, in death, life is much better and kinder for you.