Our Kingfisher Family Harvest Appeal for 2023 was to build two new shelters for the families involved in the Dumagat Education Program in the Philippines. These shelters, located in Sibug, Rio Chico, are to enable the children to attend school in Sibug. Without these shelters, the children and their families have nowhere to stay during the week whilst they attend school, as they live as a tribe at the top of the nearby mountain. This program, which has been running for 6 years now, has enabled around 50 children to find shelter, be given a hot meal each day and receive classroom supplies such as books, pens, pencils, backpacks and so on.
In addition to the two new homes at the student village that last year’s Harvest Appeal funded, one of the original homes has been demolished and is being rebuilt as it is no longer safe to live in. The gift aid from the Harvest Appeal donations was used to fund this rebuild. The communal block that includes the kitchen and toilets is also going to be updated as some of the sheets on the roof need replacing. The work on this will start once the rebuild of the demolished shelter is complete.
