True confession…I’ve always been turned off by Facebook fundraisers as I thought it was slightly taking advantage of the platform. And then just recently I was so struck by the need of an organization I hold so close to my heart, that I realized my friends might be equally moved to give and that Facebook really is the best way to make this cause known and facilitate the giving process. So here goes…many of you know that I lived in the Philippines for 8 months and volunteered with a Christian microfinance organization called CCT. I started this work through volunteering with with PEER Servants, a US based non profit that puts teams together to support indigenous MFOs all over the world, and have been working with CCT since joining PEER Servants Team Philippines in 2012. CCT not only provides microloans to help the poorest of the poor start small businesses, but they also have boarding schools that provide a home and education to children who were once living on the streets or in very remote villages. One of these schools is in Mindanao and caters to an indigenous people group who are extremely poor, remote, simple, and often victim to child trafficking and exploitation. Usually the children are walking for a couple of hours, in flip flops or bare feet, through jungle-like terrain to attend class. So CCT built dormitories to house them, but recently CCT’s director of education sent PEER Servants this email below. When I read it, with tear-filled eyes, I was overcome with the need to make this dormitory a reality!!

Speaking of dormitories, we used to house 26 girls in one dorm due to limitations in space at our tribal school in Mindanao. Then early this year, we made assessment with the dorm that its structure is deteriorating and is crumbling down and not safe to live anymore. To be transparent, we don’t have funds for the repair of the dormitory. But since this is an immediate concern for the safety and the needs of our students before the school year should begin, we need to start the rebuilding of the dorm.

I have attached the construction ongoing… as of present we cannot full blast the rebuilding due to limitation in funds, but I am trying my best to find funding sources. The new building will be able to cater to 50 girls with a secure structure. The overall cost of the building project is around P500,000 pesos (around $10,000).