We from Rise Above Cebu want to wish all our friends world wide a fruitful and fulfilling New Year!
We had a lovely time through the month of December, bringing cheer to people in need. Many gave a donation toward our request of giving a “Christmas gift to poor families”, so here we want to share a few photos.
Marie visited the Baclaan family in their "house" to give them their Christmas gifts in the form of 1 sack of rice, canned goods, coffee, milk powder, toilet paper, soaps etc.
Mars is working for the foundation, and he is a great help - it seems so easy for him to carry a 50 kilo sack of rice - and even smiling!!
Eljen and Tawie Mag-aso and their family received the bundles of joy at Umapad rubbish dump
Felicidad and her two children live at the vegetable market where they sell vegetables to make enough money for food. Since they don't have electricity, the children study in the evening by the light from the trucks that come into the market with fruits and vegetables.
A picture tells a thousand words! The happiness radiates from this family after they received their gifts.
Again this year, our kids, who have now turned into teens, did their puppet show again in institutions for handicapped and abandoned children.
Many groups contacted us as they wanted to give of their abundance to make Christmas special for the poor. Here is a team from the British Telecoms' Call Center in Cebu who brought food and gifts in the form of school materials for 300 children
The building of our Rise Above Community Center is progressing, and Timex Philippines moved in just before Christmas and started on the construction of the medical/dental clinic
Juliette is Marites' friend, and they studied together. Juliette was born with 1 1/2 leg, and had the crippled leg amputated so she could get an artificial leg and learn to walk. Because of poverty, the quality of the leg is very bad, and it gives her constant pain. Marites requested we help Juliette by fundraising for her to get a proper artificial leg. We have already raised US$ 900. A new leg costs between US$ 1050-1500. We would like to get her the best, so that she will not have to suffer anymore. Can you help?
Between Christmas and New Year, Flemming, Elisabet and their two children, Suzy (21) and Johnny (15) took a trip up to the north of the island to visit a livelihood project where they focus on goat raising. We wanted to share a photo of the beautiful scenery - all lush and green and very fertile. It rains 10 months out of the year (with lots of sunny days in between) causing everything to grow effortlessly. In the front, the farmer had just harvested sugarcane.
For the 11th Christmas in a row, Flemming and Elisabet have performed as Mr. and Mrs. Santa, bringing lots of cheer to the children. As you can see at the top of the page, they enjoyed making Christmas special, and are looking forward to do it again at the end of 2012 as well.
We are so happy to share the good news of our work and accomplishments with you. Thank you for your support and encouragement. You are always welcome to come and visit us. Just stay in touch, and we will look forward to seeing you again!
With love from
Rise Above Cebu Team
