When I speak for different groups and in various updates, I have told about how the children’s home children and volunteers also help. Let me tell a little more here.
I understand that due to their age and resources they can’t always do a lot. However, “a lot of a little is still a lot”; meaning it adds up.
Inday sells items from the sari-sari store to support herself and her daughter. She also supplements the meals with items that she purchases using her income. This is done when the donated funds are stretched thin.
One of the other volunteers is married to a fisherman and she will donate fish if they can spare some from their fishing village.
The grandmother to some of the children will bring some extra rice and coconuts and occasionally a chicken from their farm in the mountains.
The children have also gotten involved. Babeselle at 13 years old, does laundry by hand for some people to help out. She and the other children bagged sand from a sandy are on the beach for a construction project and made about $10.00 USD a week while the project was underway.
What makes me happy and proud of “my children” is that they do not have an entitlement mentality of just standing there with their hands out, but they want to be a part of helping.
When we started this and when new children are needing help, I have told them all the same thing. “You do not have to DO anything to get help with your lessons or join in the meal. I would hope that you help each other when you can and also, I know that there are people in your village that due to age or sickness, cannot always do things for themselves. I would hope that you would help others when you can but it is not a requirement.”
Early on, they began a friendly competition to see who could help others. When I would be helping them with their lessons, they would all tell me what they had done for others. Over the last few years, it has become so common that they just treat it as a usual part of their life.
In the village there are a couple elderly people who have had strokes and a man that had most of his leg amputated due to an accident while working. Additionally, there are the usual problems due to age and illness.
Often you hear stories about people just having their hand out and not doing anything for themselves. I am so glad that these children and even the volunteers that help Inday, have chosen to take a path of doing the very best that they can for themselves and others.
In the future, there are a couple microbusinesses that I would like to see placed in the village to help them in ways that right now they cannot do for themselves.
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