Updated Special Report: 202 pupils, 18 high school and 4 college students receive educational support this year from WIMLER and partners

Through the combined efforts of WIMLER Foundation HK, WIMLER Philippines, Association of Bansaleños Worldwide (ABW), Nicolas Amor Educational Fund, and Passi City Balik sa Bayan, Inc., 192 pupils, 18 high school and 3 college students received educational fund in school year 2015-2016.

Officially launched in 2010, the Send a Child to School project of WIMLER Philippines has gained wide support from friends and families abroad. The project received more support with the establishment of WIMLER Foundation Hong Kong in 2011 which presently provides the bulk of funding through its various fund raising drive in Hong Kong.

NO. OF BENEFICIARIES SCHOOL YEAR 2015-2016
AREA	DONORS	NO.
Mlang, North Cotabato
Dugong Elementary School	WIMLER	35
Mlang Pilot Elementary School	WIMLER	40
Mlang National High School	WIMLER	18
College	WIMLER	4
Bansalan, Davao del Sur
Marber Elementary School	WIMLER	20
Dolo Elementary School	ABW	20
Mabuhay Elementary School	ABW	15
Villa Doneza Elementary School	Nicolas Amor Educational Fund	10
Poblacion	WIMLER	2
Iloilo
Banate, Iloilo	WIMLER	30
Anecito Panolino Elementary School	Passi City Balik sa Bayan	10
Nueva Vizcaya
Gov. Manzano Elementary School	WIMLER	20

CUMULATIVE  NUMBER OF CHILDREN ASSISTED SINCE 2011
No. of Beneficiaries	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	TOTAL
Kindergarten					50		50
Pupils	20	97	137	135	138	157	684
High School			7	17	20	18	62
College					2	3	5

The figures only reflect the number of children directly by WIMLER. WIMLER Philippines also manages the funds provided by Association of Bansaleños Worldwide (ABW) and Nicolas Amor Educational Fund

Our donors come from various countries: Philippines, Hong Kong, USA, Mexico, Singapore, Netherlands, Denmark, and Canada.

The Send a Child to School is implemented in the Philippines by WIMLER Philippines in collaboration with various schools and local partners. This school year, we collaborate with the following:

WIMLER Foundation HK

WIMLER Foundation Hong Kong Ltd. was officially registered in 2011 as a non-profit and charitable organization which primary objective is to support the capacity building and empowerment of migrant communities regardless of nationalities and to promote cultural diversity based on mutual respect, solidarity, and shared empowerment among peoples.

WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress, Inc.

The WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress, Inc. is a non-profit and non-governmental organizations which aims to contribute to the development of the local communities in Mindanao.  Established in 2006 by Rispens-Noel Family, WIMLER supports projects which benefit local communities, particularly women and out-of-school youth.

 Association of Bansaleños Worldwide (ABW)

Association of Bansaleños Worldwide (ABW) is a virtual hometown association of Bansaleños who live and work abroad. They started “Give Back” campaign in 2007.

Passi City Balik sa Bayan, Inc.

Passi City Balik sa Bayan, Inc. is a group of Passinhons who once in their lifetime worked abroad as OFWs, seafarers and immigrants in various places in the world. It was launched on November 11, 2012 at Passi City, Iloilo. It was founded under the supervision of the Passi City (Iloilo) Association Hong Kong (PCIAHK) officers and members.

Nicolas Amor Educational Fund

Nicolas Amor Educational Fund is a private initiative of Bella Amor Cintron in honor of her late father, Mr. Nicolas Amor, who served as principal for many years at Villa Doneza Central Elementary School in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.

Gallery during distribution of bags, uniforms, school supplies, etc. (more pictures to follow)

Our high school scholars

Richard Rispens, one of the directors of WIMLER HK came during the distribution in Mlang 

Passi City Balik sa Bayan supports 10 pupils this school year

The fund raising drive led by Ma. Wilma Padura, president of Passi City Balik sa Bayan, a Hong Kong –based hometown association, resulted to funding the education of ten elementary school supplies. This is in addition to the 20 children which WIMLER HK is already supporting in Iloilo. This is their first fund raising drive in collaboration with WIMLER Foundation HK. WIMLER HK has been running the Send a Child to School project since 2011.

The campaign generated responses from Hong Kong, Denmark, and Canada. The funds raised will be used to purchase school bags, uniforms, school supplies, shoes, and pay the miscellaneous fees.

Our deep gratitude to the donors.

To support the Send a Child to School Program of Passi City Balik sa Bayan and WIMLER Foundation HK, please contact:

Ma. Wilma Padura

Mobile:  +852 9386 2514

Email: wpadura@yahoo.com

or through Wilma's Facebook private message

The joy of growing vegetables, raising hogs for own food and livelihood

                                         
By: Annabelle Libao

To grow vegetables and raise hogs for home consumption or as a source of income are fundamental pleasures and skills so many of us are missing nowadays. Refreshed with bright ideas for a healthy well-being and living, 48 participants of Agriculture/ Agri- livestock Skills Training received certificates last May 17, 2015 after attending the four-week course at Migrants Empowerment Resource Centre (MERC), Hong Kong.

The course was conducted last  March 08 - April 19. The participants learned the different methods of Natural Farming, Poultry Production, Mushroom Culture and Aquaculture (tilapia) under the able tutelage of Rose Perido. Rose has been sharing her knowledge and experiences in farming for more than 10 years.

“Malapit sa puso ko ang usaping pangkabuhayan at pagsasaka” says Honorable Consul Charles Macaspac who was the guest of honor, and whose grandfather and father-in-law have served in the agricultural sector for so many years.  Supportive Kathy de Guzman, Director of Wimler Foundation, encouraged everyone to keep learning as tools for better options in the future.

Most of the participants came from farming families and some have already ventured into agri-projects back in their respective hometowns.

Alvir Catacutan and his family from Misamis Oriental are currently engaged in banana production in their eight hectares farmland. “The recent typhoons have affected our 1,700 trees but they are now recovering and producing good monthly harvest,” he said.

Wilma Padura who hails from Passi City happily shared how she started planting 500 cacao trees and a fish pond project for her group. “Although the cost of labor and capital are quite high, the return is also high about 40 percent," Padura said.

Venus Agustin joyfully cited the risks, challenges and success of their two-year-old fish farm in Mallig, Isabela. Lots of potentials and inspiring stories were shared during the training.

Most of the participants were energized after the training to engage more in agriculture, hog raising and aqua culture when they go home to their respective hometowns.

Nothing tastes like food you just harvested yourself from your own farm, back yard or containers. It is the joy we feel when we taste the beans that we grew or meat from the hogs we raised with guaranteed benefits for a good health that most of us choose to go back to basic - the natural organic way of growing foods.

Learn with us!

This Agriculture / Agri-livestock Skills Training is organized by Wimler Foundation Hong Kong in cooperation with Isabela Federation, MERC and Prime Credit.

To register, please send message to 5373 6298. Thank you.

Life Goals: Migrants, Remittances & Sustainable Development

I am part of a core group that is planning to organize a meeting of practitioners to articulate the best practices on how migrants have made good use of their remittances for replication. PhilSmile, Wimler Foundation, Ateneo de Davao and MinCode are organizing a conference on the "Role of Migrants and their Remittances in Sustainable Development" in Davao on January 24, 2015 at Ateneo de Davao University. The following are our core messages that I helped in crafting. 

There is a need to revisit the various variables related to migration towards identifying ways to help migrants and their families achieve their migration goals. Remittances can be an accelerator in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Those new goals were set-up by the United Nation for Development Program for 2015-2030, following on the Millennium Development Goals. 

Migrant workers from Mindanao and their families, microfinance institutions, academia, local government, private sector, and other stakeholders are joining the discussions. An important output of the conference is to come up with policy recommendations and help set up strategic alliances with like-minded organizations working on migration and development. 

The Philippines has been grappling with the myriad issues of migration and of the plight of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and yet little has been done to address this reality in the context of sustainable development and of the well being of the OFWs themselves and of their families. It will be beneficial, then, for OFWs themselves and advocates for development to revisit the link between migration, remittances and sustainable development. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas says that remittances to the Philippines have been growing at 12% a year over the past decade and expected to grow at a 6% yearly rate over the coming years. While the current economic growth has given new opportunities, there is still a level of unemployment and underemployment, resulting to an increasing flow of Filipinos leaving the Philippines.  

In 2013, the World Bank reported that with "....almost 10 million unemployed or underemployed Filipinos as of end of 2012, around 1.1 million potential are entrants to the labor market each year, and with poverty incidence that hardly declined between 2009 and 2012, the country faces the enormous challenge of providing good jobs to 14.4 million Filipinos through 2016. Sustaining high GDP growth of above 5 percent will be able to provide good jobs to around 2.2 million Filipinos between 2013 and 2016. However, by 2016, that still leaves 12.4 million Filipinos who will have no other option but to work abroad, work in the informal sector, or create jobs for themselves."

Yet, over ten million Overseas Filipinos sent 24.35 billion dollars in 2013. There is a need to study how our OFWs are managing their hard earned funds. After all, managing finances is a skill that can be learned. In understanding all these, there is a need to incorporate the reality that  9 million children under 18 grow up with one or both of their parents leaving overseas (UNICEF, 2009).  

How OFWs disburse their incomes are dictated by personal choices, not state budget allocations. This conference aims to contribute to shift the perspective from not knowing what to do with the windfall of remittances to a renewed focus on OFW and whether their behavior patterns contribute to their life goals. After all, OFWs have already determined that migration is a financial strategy. 

For the welfare of the OFWs themselves, it will be strategic to conflate the reasons why Filipinos want to work abroad in relation to what they want to achieve as life goals. Our OFWs will need skills to plan their migration and tools to measure success based on their imagined good life. 

We need to propose measures and mechanisms that will maximize the potential of their earnings in a way that will sustain the impact of their remittances for their own well being and of their families. From a macro development perspective, there is also a need to articulate what policies can be advocated in the policy arena to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals beyond 2015.  

Isabelita Solamo 
Women Write - http://isabelitasolamo.blogspot.com

OFWs in Hong Kong learn how too make farming profitable

WIMLER Foundation HK and ISAFED in cooperation with Ms Rose Perido are organizing an AGRICULTURE/AGRI-LIVESTOCK SKILLS TRAINING for OFWs in Hong Kong. The training is intended for those who are planning to engage in agri-related activities when they finally decide to go home for good and even start investing in farming while still working in Hong Kong. The participants will be taught the  basic theory in agriculture and how to make farming enjoyable and profitable.  Admission is FREE.

The training will be conducted on the following dates:

March 8
March 22
April 5 (Easter Sunday)
April 19

from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm

VENUE:

12/F Euro Trade Centre                                                                                
21-23 Des Voeux Road, Central                                                                        
Hong Kong

We can only accommodate a limited number of participants. To register, please contact Annabelle Libao 5373 62 98. 

REGISTER NOW! 

This training is part of the return and reintegration program of WIMLER Foundation HK.