Poverty

Of the 90 million people living in the Philippines about half live beneath the poverty line – a few US dollars per day. The poverty of this nation has created an environment that sacrifices the education of the children:

• Parents are often forced to keep children home from school to help earn money for food by working in the rice fields or doing odd jobs in the community
• Many academically promising students are caught in this trap and denied the privilege of an education

If this problem isn’t addressed, the debilitating cycle of poverty will never stop.

Faces of Poverty

It is difficult to convey the destitution and struggle of these families; the constant din of cars and voices through open gaps in makeshift walls, the musky odor of untreated sewage, and the cramped claustrophobia of their ramshackle homes are hard to adequately describe. Hopefully, the following images can provide a brief glimpse of our students' plight.