Wimler HK holds benefit dinner to help send Filipino kids to school

This article was  first published in The Sun Online Edition

By Jan Yumul 

More than 100 people turned up for a charity dinner hosted by the Wimler Foundation Hong Kong Limited, held at the United Services Recreation Club in Jordan on April 21.

In her speech, Wimler founder and president, Leila Rispens-Noel, thanked everyone who supported the event, then revealed the inspiration for her mission.

Because of poverty, she was forced to stop studying after high school so her brothers could continue with theirs.

"I wished to study but I could not because my father died in 1979, he was 49. But I wanted to study, I was ambitious," said Noel. She recalled telling her father that she would never go back to being poor if she could. So, she continued working and studying at the same time until she received some good news. Someone from Chicago had written to their parish priest in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, offering a scholarship.

"And that's how I finished my college, through the help of someone whom I didn't know. I never had a chance to meet him," said Rispens-Noel.

She summed up by saying that children are poor not because their parents are lazy, but because they never had an opportunity. Once that opportunity is given them, most will respond positively.

Rispens-Noel spent 29 years in the Netherlands before relocating to Hong Kong.

The keynote speaker, Consul General Noel Servigon, congratulated the team behind Wimler and all the donors and sponsors of the event. He also said that Saturday is usually reserved for his family, but could not say no to Rispens-Noel, whom he first met during his stint in the Netherlands a decade ago.

He also revealed that education has played a big part in his life, as his first job when he was just 18 was as teacher in a midwifery and nursing school in the province.

He also told the benefactors how they made a very important decision by attending the dinner, not only to help the Filipino children who will benefit, but in initiating the group in Hong Kong which he hopes will be a model for other organizations.

With the motto "a dinner for you, a year-long education for a child," Wimler-HK, together with Wimler Philippines, aims to help 100 primary school children in Mindanao when the school year kicks off this June.