Dear Donors and Friends,
2020 draws to a close with our hearts grateful for the sustained support by our benefactors; and hopeful that together, we will continue to provide our underserved youth with access to educational opportunities.
While Covid-19 still dominates our lives, schools are still closed, and climate change continues to cause havoc in the lives of many, UNLAD persisted to work with underserved communities in the Philippines and the USA. Here’s a quick update of what happened since October, our last newsletter:
In the Philippines…
UNLAD, in partnership with Save the Children Philippines (STC) provided 200+ Basic Learning kits to help children sustain their learning through the pandemic.
We also supported STC in its fund-raising efforts that included a holiday on-line concert showcasing the best of the brightest Filipino performance artists, all volunteering for this cause including our niece, Kayla Rivera.
In recognition of our support, UNLAD received a letter of recognition from STC’s CEO, Alberto T. Muyot. Here is an excerpt, and we humbly share this honor with our benefactors.
“Your gift will be utilized to implement the holistic approach of a nurturing home. This helps to ensure that children continue to learn at home with support from their parents; that they are protected from abuse and violence; and that they have access to health, nutrition and psychosocial support. I admire you for your passion and dedication to this generation of children… I would also like to personally thank you for taking the lead with our Advocates. Your commitment to this group is invaluable, encouraging each advocate to give the best of their time and resources towards our common mission of inspiring breakthroughs for children, and achieving immediate and lasting change in their lives…”
We reported in our October newsletter that we launched a garden community initiative as a way of teaching life skills outside the classroom to students of the Baruyan Elementary School (BES) whose families live in the underserved farm village of Baruyan, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, the Philippines.
The goal of the initiative was for the students and their extended families – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins – to come together to plant and harvest vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers –and in the process learn the important lesson of food self-sufficiency.
Our youth and their families enthusiastically participated, planning for a December harvest. Unfortunately, another strong storm hit the community, leaving heavy flooding and major devastation.
We had to temporarily cancel the initiative, but will not give up and will resume in the coming months.
Faced with losses this community suffered from these calamities, piled on top of the continuing difficulties brought by the pandemic, we allowed ourselves to slightly digress from our education mission to help these families recover.
In the spirit of the season of giving, UNLAD distributed care packages to 50+ families.
The care packages included basic food supplies, including canned milk, fruit and juice.
The recipient families also included the families of students identified by the principal and teachers of the Baruyan Elementary School (BES), who also helped assemble and distribute the packages.
Another partner organization, Montero Medical Missions and Mom’s Choice Awards sent to BES a big box-full of toys, supplies, and books and were distributed to students of BES.
In the USA…We continue to award opportunistic scholarships to children with financial need attending the Charlottesville city schools, We stand ready to provide assistance to educational opportunities with the Charlottesville City Schools Athletics and Arts Departments and Computers4Kids
Going forward…
The UNLAD board will meet to set our goals for 2021. A wise man wrote that there are three important gifts that 2020 gave us: connectivity – authentic and heart-to-heart, even if we cannot be physically together; adaptability –looking beyond what used to be normal and accepting that “this” is normal; and receptivity– knowing that our hearts must be open to receive, as well as to give. We will keep these three important lessons close to our hearts, always aspiring to provide our underserved youth with access to education.
Terry and Allen de Guzman
Providing our underserved youth with access to education
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