When Karika and I moved to the Philippines in, 2001 we decided to try to help and be active in some way. In December 2001, we came across the orphanage in Zamboanga city. It was rated the worst orphanage in the social welfare system at the time. We decided this would be a good place to start. We also realized very quickly that we did not have the resources to help all the orphans in the Philippines so we decided to pick one orphanage and do it well. We also realized we could not do it alone. We did not have the expertise or funding to run this project alone. This limited amount of funds turned into a godsend for us. We began to network and expose the orphans to whoever would listen and coordinate projects and priorities. The responses have been wonderful. So the projects you will see on the pages here were funded by friends and other donors, we will always credit everyone that helps except for those that wish to be kept anonymous.

Today the orphanage is listed as the top orphanage in the social welfare system. This has been achieved by a lot of hard work by many great people. As some have told us when we first started that we could fix it, but the harder part is sustaining it. Their words rang true. Now the goal has shifted from just trying to keep the children healthy and fed to sustaining the orphanage so it does not slide back to the way it was four years ago. This is a difficult task of infrastructure upgrades, after years of neglect, an upgrade means tearing the old building down and rebuilding a new one. We have not nor will we give up on the orphans of Zamboanga city.

The orphanage is a model of what can be done when groups of people decide to take matters into their own hands and do something for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do. Throughout the web site you will see listed the friends of the orphanage and in the links page you will find the organizations that are part of our family. Thank you for visiting our site and please help where you can. If not here help somewhere there is need, do it only because it is the right thing to do and because you can.