Support for the Boystown children in the Philippines

We are a group of former rice scientists and families who are supporting the Father Al’s Children Foundation, Inc. that runs the Sisters of Mary Schools (SMS) in the Philippines. The SMS boarding schools provide shelter, food and a high school eduction for children from very poor and problematic backgrounds, e.g. street children or children from very poor or difficult family backgrounds.

Students with Sister from Boystown (Foto: FACFI)

The schools provide an opportunity for these children to get an eduction and escape poverty. All graduates from the schools find jobs easily and are then often also contributing significantly to the livelihoods of their families. Each of these schools houses between 2,000 and 3,000 children.

The “Boystown” SMS school in Cavite, Philippines, has an attached farm that produces vegetables and crops for the kitchen of the school. All farming operations are done manually, which is difficult because of heavy soils. A previously provided hand tractor is broken and cannot be repaired because it was donated from abroad and parts are not locally available.

Vegetable and herb section of the school.

Broken hand tractor.

The school also has facilities for training on automotive repair and maintenance as part of vocational training offered to the children.

Student in the Metal workshop of the school.

The funds to be raised will be used to purchase locally available and serviceable basic machinery for the farm, in particular a hand tractor with implements for soil preparation, crop care and transport.

To sustainably introduce the machines to the school, we, with our background in agricultural research, development and mechanization, will provide training on the use of the machinery, preventive maintenance and repair, and will integrate these topics into the school’s vocational training curriculum.

Hand tractor

The students will benefit from a healthier nutrition from a more diversified diet from their farm produce, and from opportunities coming from the know how and skills for operating, maintaining and repairing agricultural machines. They will also benefit from reduced drudgery during working in the farm.