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Transform a life for as little as P20 through the Pearl S. Buck Foundation
Alleviating poverty is a herculean task and despite the government's efforts to fight it, many families still cannot afford to send their children to school. With just P20 per day, people can now help make a difference and transform lives.
Through the child sponsorship program of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Philippines (PSBP), anyone can help a child get access to education.
“In the US, it’s $1 per day. Here in the Philippines, it’s just P20 per day,” Anthony Luna, Vice President of Pearl S. Buck International said. "You can help one child to get an education, get health access to a doctor, get a nutritious meal."
P20 a day amounts to P7,500 a year, including the P200 membership fee. Currently, the program has about 550 American and about 26 Filipino sponsors. PSPB is also tapping businessmen and other local government units to join their child sponsorship program.
“If we can really inspire people here in the Philippines to do that P20 a day. They’re not just giving that P20, you’re giving an opportunity to change a life forever. And not just a child’s life, but also the family’s life,” Luna said.
PSBP was established in 2003 as an autonomous affiliate organization and has been serving over 550 Filipino children who are from ethnic minorities and displaced families through its sponsorship program and other projects on education, health, and psycho-social programs.
The foundation has been supporting children from Bulacan, Pampanga, Zambales and Ormoc. They are looking into expanding in more areas in the Philippines.
Pearl S. Buck Foundation International (PBSI) together with 12 American sponsors visited the Philippines for a cultural tour from February 21 to March to finally meet their sponsored children and families. They visited Bulacan, Pampanga and Olongapo.
“We’ve seen not only the actual situation of how they live…but more importantly, they opened their home, their heart and their souls to us. We’ve been able to thank them for being so gracious to open their homes to us,” Luna said.
Luna met his sponsored child and his family in San Jose, Bulacan. He shared that he was greatly honored by the hospitality of the family, who prepared a meal served on a banana leaf for them.
“That’s probably a [day's wage] or more for them to feed us. We were just shocked by their generosity and by their humility to say thank you,” Luna said.
Success stories
Before he was known as apl.de.ap of the Grammy Award-winning group The Black Eyed Peas, Allan Pineda Lindo was also a sponsored child of the dollar-a-day program of PBSI. Pineda grew up farming sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane, and rice to help his family in Pampanga. He was matched with a sponsor named Joe Ben Hudgens by the foundation.
“Amongst all sponsored children since 1968, the most successful is apl.de.ap. We’re so proud of him… We took care of him at the age of 2, and let him go to school until he went to the states with his sponsor,” Wee said.
Luna shared another success story of former sponsored child Dr. Vangie Gutierrez, who now lives in New Jersey. Like the other sponsored children, Gutierrez was also found by a community development officer.
“Today, she’s a medical doctor. And she (Gutierrez) said, the only reason she became a medical doctor was because she worked hard. It’s not 100 percent Pearl S. Buck because the responsibility [to succeed falls] on the child. But the financial support from Pearl S. Buck fueled her,” Luna said.
Gutierrez is also now sponsoring two children who are from Cebu and Leyte.
PBSI was established by American writer and novelist Pearl Sydenstricker Buck in 1968 to address poverty and discrimination of children in Asian countries.
Buck was the first woman to receive both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for literature.
“Her heritage as a child and [as a] white person who grew up in China, she felt the impact of being marginalized. We continue to serve youth and children throughout a number of different countries, to assist them, to grow up and be productive part of the societies,” Fred Shea, Vice Chairman of Pearl S. Buck International said.
Luna added, “She actually faced some of the pain of discrimination, feeling like an outsider. And so she did dedicate her whole organization ... helping children who are ‘outside’. And so that’s where she poured her passion and her vision into what we continue today.”
PBSI has been improving the lives of marginalized children who face disadvantages due to the circumstances of their birth - either discrimination, poverty, or disability. They are working to address that no child should be denied of education, social, economic, and civic privileges.
“I may not be able to solve poverty for the world, but I can solve it for one child or one family. You start with a one child and one family. And if enough people work and focus only. Can you imagine if enough people did that? You would start taking one truck out of world poverty before you know it,” Luna said. — AT, GMA News
