ABU DHABI // Charity volunteers in Abu Dhabi are working to eradicate child labour and educate hundreds of children in one of the most deprived areas of the Philippines.
Jane Walker, a former publishing executive from Gloucester in the west of England, founded the Philippine Community Fund (PCF) in 1996, and six years later set up a community school in a warehouse beside the Smokey Mountain, a rubbish dump in Manila.
Last year the UK-registered charity opened a four-storey school made of container vans at the site.
The charity provides education, food, health care and skills training to families living on dump sites in Manila's poorest slums, including Smokey Mountain.
"It is fulfilling," said Ms Walker, who divides her time between the UK and the Philippines. "But the financial pressure to maintain the work takes away a lot of the joy that it should bring."
The new school is large enough to educate more than 1,000 children. However, 152 children are still waiting for sponsors, she said.
The PCF needs to find them for these children, aged four to seven, by the end of April. If it cannot, the children will not be able to enrol at the opening of the school year and must return to a life of picking waste at the dumpsite.
"Families live in shanties and are effectively homeless," she said of the dire poverty in Manila's slums. "They do not have running water or sanitation apart from the toilet blocks we built and the water filter we installed there."
Ms Walker has constantly been looking for new sources of funding. The charity has a child sponsorship programme that aims to end child labour, restore their childhood and help them escape a life of poverty.
A Dh115-a-month sponsorship provides a place at school, two meals a day, a weekly food parcel, two sets of uniforms and a pair of shoes, transport to and from school, regular medical check-ups, and support and medical care for the entire family.
Susan Tabler, a member of the non-profit Abu Dhabi Cause Connect and a Dubai resident for the past 12 years, is a PCF sponsor from the UAE. She first heard of PCF through a newspaper article in Dubai in 2005. Four years later, in November 2009, she and her family visited the four children they were sponsoring in Manila.
"I was intrigued by what the PCF has been doing," she said. "We have two daughters, aged 11 and 13. We thought it was a superb way to engage them in a charitable activity and see the faces of children they were helping."
The PCF also supports the children's parents through a livelihood programme that provides an alternative to waste picking. Ring pulls from soda cans, crisp packets and toothpaste tubes are made into an assortment of bags, purses and jewellery.
"We were amazed by the quality of their products," Mrs Tabler said. "They're so ingenious."
Suparna Mathur, a co-founder of Abu Dhabi Cause Connect, said she was moved by Ms Walker's work and impressed by the recycled merchandise. "I wanted to do everything I could to engage the community here to increase support for the PCF," she said.
In November, Abu Dhabi Cause Connect, in conjunction with the PCF and sponsor Al-Futtaim Carillion, launched the Recycle for a Cause campaign, an initiative to provide shelter, food and education for Filipino children and their families.
People can collect and donate all plastic bags and ring pulls at the nearest collection bin, and all materials will be sent to the Philippines.
"By collecting one million ring pull tabs through the campaign, we will effectively raise the value of Dh500,000 for PCF," Ms Mathur said. Each ring tab has a value of 50 fils.
The response has so far been "overwhelmingly positive", according to Ms Mathur.
"Almost every single individual or organisation that we have met has been moved by the uniqueness of the campaign," she said.
At the moment, Abu Dhabi Cause Connect has 22 partners in Abu Dhabi running the collections boxes, and it is speaking with 35 others.
Abu Dhabi Cause Connect is also working to raise awareness of recycling by addressing schools and universities.
"The community in the UAE have been amazing," Ms Walker said. "I feel very humbled and extremely grateful that so many people are willing to partner with us."
For more information about the PCF, visit p-c-f.org.
To find out where to drop off recycled items, email RecycleForACauseUAE@gmail.com or visit the Abu Dhabi Cause Connect Facebook page www.facebook.com/AbuDhabiCauseConnect.
