Monday, September 8, 2008
The Center for Community Outreach is extending its reach all the way to the Philippines.
The University organization, which is a nonprofit, student volunteer organization, is raising awareness and funds to support the building of a school to help impoverished children living on a dump site in the Tondo region of the Southeast Asian nation.
CONTRIBUTED
The Center for Community Outreach co-directors, Ali Zeigler, Manila, Phillippines, junior and Mandy Shriwise, Overland Park senior, broaden the center's outreach to the Phillippines. They travelled to this Tondo region dump site, above, during the summer.
This is the first time the CCO, which generally provides service within the Lawrence community, has helped with an overseas program. Co-directors Ali Zeigler, Manila, Philippines, junior, and Mandy Shriwise, Overland Park senior, have identified their first goal.
“We want the organization to be responsible for a biology classroom,” Zeigler said. “We want them to receive the same caliber of education as in the U.S.”
Zeigler and Shriwise are trying to raise between $5,000 and $12,000 for the project.
Although the CCO is involved in several local programs, the students said they wanted its grasp to be global.
“We are looking to broaden students’ view of community in the midst of globalization,” Shriwise said. “We need to be aware of other places, not just Lawrence, that exist and have need.”
Both Zeigler and Shriwise traveled to the Philippines in July and spent a day at the site. They said they saw school-aged children walking around barefoot. The children were working instead of going to school.
They said the site was a stark contrast to the nicer, much wealthier part of town, which was a 5-minute drive away. They said what they saw inspired them and they brought their efforts home.
“There was a community of several thousand people living on this dump site, making their living off of it,” Zeigler said. “The poorest of the poor make 60 cents a day.”
The Philippine Community Fund, founded by British woman Jane Walker, is the main source of funding for the school. The nonprofit organization receives donations from private donors and philanthropic organizations. A goal of the organization is to educate the children living in the Tondo region.
The construction of the school will begin this fall and continue throughout the school year.
“There are incentives given to the children that attend school,” Zeigler said. “The child is fed two meals a day at school. If they attend school everyday for a week they will be able to bring home a few kilos of rice and some canned goods.”
Student involvement is crucial for the continued construction of the school. Though the specifics of fund raising are not yet finalized, ideas the CCO have include a letter-writing campaign, monetary donations and benefit concerts.
— — Edited by Ramsey Cox
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