Autumn Newsletter

Our Autumn Newsletter has just been published and is full of exciting news, photos and information.

You can read it here on Google Documents - Autumn 2009 Newsletter

You can also read our earlier newsletters here too:-

Spring 2009 Newsletter

Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Spring 2008 Newsletter

Christmas Is Coming

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Please put some pennies in the fund-raisers hat!

Yes it's that time of year again; when many of us go a bit mad rushing around spending money to celebrate the Saviour's birth by buying loads of food, presents and other stuff to share with those we love. It is also a time when many of us like to give a thought to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Well why not make it a bit easier for yourself this year and do as much of the Christmas shopping as you can from the comfort of your own computer - on-line!

And, what's more you can put some money in the hat for your favourite charity whilst doing so. Easy Fundraising is a shopping portal that gives 50% of it's revenue to the charities that you choose - including this one of course!

They now have over 2000 top name retailers available ranging from Marks & Spencer to Thorntons, Fat Face, LA Fitness, Argos and many, many more, as well as banks, insurance companies, internet services and so on. The list just goes on and on. And every single one of these companies pays a commission on you on-line purchases. It costs you nothing but makes a huge difference to us.

Just this Saturday I received this quarters cheque from Easy Fundraising for £67.72. That may not seem much to you but to our House of Joshua appeal that means around 700 bricks for the building.

So what are you waiting for? Just get a-clicking! Click right here (or on the advert banner at the top of this page) and you'll be right there!

Of course you don't have to stop at just buying presents on-line to raise money for us. Maybe the people you love already have everything they need and beyond? So, instead of cluttering their home up with even more stuff why not give them an 'alternative' Christmas gift? Make a direct donation to our House of Joshua fund on their behalf. There is a donate button on our website (as well as on this blog)

And if you can't find the perfect gift that you are looking for through Easy Fundraising then why not look for it through the Easy Search search engine - at least that way we'll pick up a few pennies for the searches that you do.

Do You E-Bay?

Now you can support us when you sell things on E-Bay.

When you are listing an item for sale on E-Bay you have the option of donating all or part of the proceeds to a charity of your choice. Now that we have registered with E-Bay's charity partner, Missionfish, you can choose to support the Conroy Rendon Charitable Trust.

Click here to find out more.

P.S. A big thank you to "Tita Dolly" who put us on to this and has already chosen to support us in this way with her E-Bay listings.

Another Shipment On Its Way

Just some of the tools shipped today

It's been several months in the preparing, the collecting, the boxing and labelling but at last we've done it. We have emptied our garage and dispatched another shipment of tools (mechanics, plumbers, electricians and carpenters tools) gardening implements, sewing machines and computers, plus a few sets of children's clothing for good measure (as well as padding around the computers).

The bulk of these (22 boxes weighing in at over half a ton) are bound for the 'Open Eyes Mission' in Cagayan De Oro City where they will be used to set up a workers co-operative in a poor community. Two other boxes are bound for other organisations that we partner with in the same area.

Once again a huge vote of thanks to Tools With A Mission and Aid to Hospitals Worldwide, plus several individual contributors, for supplying the goods and to Gary and Evelyn at Tagalog Balikbayan Services for arranging the shipping on our behalf. We simply couldn't do this without your help.

All being well the consignment should arrive at its destination in early December. In the meantime we have more orders to process so, in a week or two, we will start all over again. Oh well, it was nice having a bit of space in the garage for a day or two!

Manila Typhoon Aid

Over the past week I've had one or two people asking if they can route donations to help the victims of Typhoon Ketsana in Manila through our charity.

Our focus is on long term sustainable projects, primarily around the city of Cagayan De Oro in Mindanao (which is in the south of the country) and we only work through local mission partners to ensure that all the aid we provide makes it through to the intended beneficiaries.

We don't have any suitable contacts in the Manila area however one of our friends, who is a church pastor in Cagayan De Oro, has recommended Operation Blessing Philippines a Philippines based charity distributing aid to disaster victims. You can make a donation by credit card on their website http://www.obphil.com/

Alternatively, if you prefer to make a donation through a UK based charity, you can do so via the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation for 13 major UK disaster relief charities,who have launched a special appeal for the victims of the typhoons in the Philippines and Vietnam as well as the earthquake in Sumatra and the Tsunami in Samoa. However any donations you make through this route will go to all these regions rather than just the Philippines.

Update Sunday 11th october :- since writing the above there have been more tropical storms causing floods and landslides in numerous places including Dagupan City in Pangasinan (Northern Luzon) and Bagguio.

In The News Again

The House of Joshua project continues to get valuable press coverage in the Philippines.

We got a mention too in this front page article in the Gold Star Daily News - the largest newspaper in Mindanao.

Local Press Coverage

It seems that word is getting around about the House of Joshua project.

Here's a link to an article published on a local website, Kagay-an.com by Mike Banos, a journalist working in Cagayan De Oro City, Mindanao. This article is also to be published in a couple of the main local newspapers.

Those Who Sow In Tears

I think it was the late Scottish Minister, Oswald Chambers, who said "Life is often more tragic than orderly" and sometimes it seems to me that some peoples lives are just filled with tragedies - like a friend of mine who, down the years that I have known him, has been made redundant several times, both he and his wife have had several serious illnesses, difficulties with their children, problems with the grandchildren, financial concerns and so on. I don't know how I would have coped in such difficulties.

However one of the most tragic stories to have touched my life in recent years has been that of a young autistic boy in the Philippines. Unable to talk or to walk properly, and with other medical problems, he was found abandoned in a city market place. It seems this child was unloved and unwanted

With nowhere else suitable to house him the city authorities placed him in a local jail for youth offenders where he sat alone in a corner, often in his own urine and excrement, largely unable to care for himself or communicate with those around him. Nobody knew his name or where he had come from. the staff referred to him as "Mr X".

Nobody took much notice of him until he was discovered by a group of young people from a church in England visiting the jail during a "mission trip" working alongside local Christian missionary organisations.

This little boy, and his terrible circumstances, was the inspiration for the House of Joshua Children's Home, a project that our charity is actively supporting in partnership with Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc.

Sadly this little boy, nicknamed "Dong" by my daughter Mary - founding principal of Lifenet, has recently died of a chest infection.

Read Mary's moving "letter to Dong" here on the Lifenet blog.

The Bible says, "Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy" (Psalm 126, verse 5).

Dong's life may have been tragic but we must not allow it to have been a tragic waste. We must act. We must do whatever it takes to make sure that other children like him have a better life than he did.

Puntod Fire Update - Pictures

With the initial amount of money that we sent 80 plywood sheets have been bought to build small shanty huts for 10 of the families made homeless by last weeks fire in Puntod Barangay.

Following receipt of a number of generous donations God has enabled us to send in excess of £1500 to bless those in need, which means that many more homes, and lives, can be rebuilt.

Here are a few lines from an e-mail we received from our partner in this endeavour.

You never know how great is the impact you had made to the lives of our brethren here.
Such a great legacy that will never ever forgotten. One of the fire victims, an elderly widow of 72 years old who had lost her shanty, is now grateful for the help she received through us. Without any pension, government benefits or assistance to her needs, she is comforted by our love that we had shown to her.

How I wish to personally thank you for your kindness towards the poor brethren over
here. The overwhelming joy is evident over their faces and hearts as they keep thanking God for such a wonderful expression of your help to them. We had extended them some help towards their basic needs as they had to start their lives all over again after this tragic fire.

Slum Community Devastated By Fire

Smoke still hangs over the devastated Puntod Community - these used to be houses

A few days ago we received an e-mail from a Pastor who is one of our Mission Partners in the Philippines. He told us about a devastating fire in a slum community in the Puntod district of Cagayan De Oro City where around 100 shanty houses had been completely destroyed.

In such communities houses are often built very close together using simple materials like wood, and even sometimes cardboard, under a corrugated metal roof. Consequently any fire spreads quickly from one building to the next.

salvaging metal roof sheets

This is the rainy season and with torrential downpours every day these people urgently need somewhere to shelter. Some have found temporary lodging with family nearby while others are struggling to survive under makeshift tents and tarpaulins.

We are only a small charity and our resources are insufficient to meet such a large need but we have been able to send enough money to buy materials to rebuild about 10 houses using metal sheets that have been salvaged from the fire for roofing.

We would like to be able to do more to help but we simply don't have enough money unless some more comes in. Just £30 will rebuild a house - would you like to make a donation? If so please click on the Paypal button on this site.

A Puntod resident looks on in shock

Tarpaulin shelter

The Face of Poverty - Does Anybody Care?

I don't know the lady in this picture but she is one of the ones referred to in an e-mail I received this week from one of our mission partners, a pastor of a church in Cagayan De Oro City, Mindanao.

Here is part of what he wrote: -

Greetings from the Philippines!

When we went to the the tribal village of Iba, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom,
our team visited a house we found three elderly women there living in a day to day survival.
In the course of the conversation, they confided how hard their lives are when no one cares for them. One of them wept bitterly as we had shown concern for them even just by being a person who has listening ears to listen to the cries of their hearts.

Here in the Philippines, there are no government programs to sustain them with their basic needs of food and medicines. We have about 40 elderly women in our bible fellowship attending
our prayer, bible study and worship. Every week we are giving them fares for transportation so that they can attend the fellowship gathering. Every week we are giving free food and rice......

We are in the process of putting together a package of tools and medical equipment for this church to enable them to provide some medical care and also set up some community programs in tribal areas so that people like this can be given ways to earn a living, perhaps by making some simple craft goods or by growing a few crops to provide food for themselves and to sell in the market place.

We can easily obtain the tools and medical supplies but shipping is quite costly and the amount of equipment that we are able to give is constrained by our limited budget. We know that no matter how much aid we send there will always be a need for more but that shouldn't stop us doing what we can.

As I look into the eyes of this lady I find myself moved by her serenity and dignity but in truth this is the face of poverty in 2009. This is not countless hordes of people on the brink of starvation in some African food crisis. This is one elderly lady, amongst a group of others just like her, struggling to survive from one day to the next. This lady has a name, she has a story to tell.

If this were in England, or another affluent country, she would be entitled to welfare support, state benefits, to provide for her needs. But this is the Philippines - a country where almost half of the 80+ million population live in serious poverty (surviving on less than £0.50 / US$1 per day) and where there are not the resources for the government to be able to change the situation, even if there were the political will to do so.

We can't help them all but we could make a difference for this lady and her two friends who live with her. Does anybody care?

In The Meantime - Please Be A Friend

Will you be a friend?

Work is now under way to build the House of Joshua Childen's Home. However the construction project is likely to take around 8 to 9 months to complete (partly depending on how quickly the money comes in and partly on how long the rainy season lasts).

In the meantime our partners in this project, the Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. want to move forward as soon as possible with providing a home for needy children at risk. To do this they are looking for a house to rent that will be large enough to accomodate about 10 to 12 children plus house parents.

The cost of getting this temporary home up and running is estimated at about £800 (60,000 Philippine pesos) per month, including food, utilities and rent; as well as employing a professional social worker, which is a legal requirement.

We are looking for 80 people to sponsor this at a minimum of £10 per month - to become a 'Friend of the Lifenet Foundation'.

We have set up a separate bank account to receive regular payments. If you have a UK Bank account you can do this by monthly Standing Order. Please visit the House of Joshua page on our website to download the standing order mandate form.

Ain't No Stopping Us Now

I've never been a fan of that particular musical genre but I've heard this song, which was a hit for McFadden and Whitehead, on the radio two or three times over the last week and the first few lines have sort of got stuck in my head, "Ain't no stopping us now, we're on the move. Ain't no stopping us now, we're got the groove."

It seems like a great anthem for us this week as we have just heard that building work has now started on the House of Joshua site and we believe that there really is going to be no stopping us now.

The song lyrics go on, "There've been so many things that have held us down. But now it looks like things are coming round, yeah......

This project has been a couple of years in the hatching and there have been frustrations and set backs along the way but now things are most definitely coming around. Listen to the rest of the song here on YouTube.



For the latest information on the building progress check out the new Lifenet Children's Foundation Blog

A New Set Of Wheels

Back in April we reported on the delivery of a shipment of clothes and a couple of wheelchairs, one of which was for a young boy affected by polio (see the stories On The Recieving End and High Speed Wheelchairs in our blog archive).

Unfortunately we have been unable to trace the boy again in order to give him the chair. We made enquiries without success - one person who was asked about him even thought that the boy had possibly died.

Then last week we were made aware of another boy, aged 17, who had been crippled by polio and was in need of some help so the wheelchair was given to him. He seems to be quite pleased with his new set of wheels!

A Little Here A little There

There are times when I wonder if we have bitten off more than we can chew; when I look at the size of the task before us and wonder if it really is possible.

Last week began that way with me thinking that 5 million Philippine pesos is an awful lot of money (about £70,000 last time we calculated it) - just how are we going to achieve that?

But over the week there have been a number of little things that have brought us just a bit closer to our target.

Firstly there was a donation of £10 from a supporter via Paypal. The following day a 'chance' conversation with one of my customers while I was working in their house resulted in them giving me a tip of £6.50, "for your charity" they said.

Then a couple of young friends, who are getting married shortly, called around to see us and asked if there we could set up the option of a donation to the charity on their wedding gift list.

This was followed a day later by a phone call about three people who each wanted to sponsor the House of Joshua project by giving a regular £10 a month. (see * below)

And then, at the beginning of this week, a church 'house group' told us that they have a tin that all their members put a few coins in each week for a good cause and they too had decided to support the House of Joshua.

None of these things has been massive, none of them has made a really significant change but each one has added a little bit here and a little bit there. Individually some of these things are not much more than a 'drop in the ocean' but that is not to demean them in any way, we appreciate every single penny that is given no matter where it comes from.

More importantly each one has encouraged me to believe that it really is possible to do this - after all, the ocean is simply made up of drops. The more drops we get the closer we are to having our own little ocean!

Then today, as I sat down to write this, I thought I would just check the exchange rate for British Pounds to Philippine Pesos. Last time I checked it was at around 71 pesos to the pound but now it's improved to just under 77 pesos. Suddenly the amount we need to raise has reduced by almost £6,000. Now that IS significant because it means that every single one of those little drops that we have accumulated is suddenly 7% bigger than it was two months ago - which means we are even closer to achieving our target!

* Following the enquiry about regular monthly donations we have set up a separate bank account to receive payments by Standing Order (applies to UK Banks only). You can obtain a standing order mandate form by visiting the House of Joshua page on our website and clicking on the 'Standing Order Form' Button.
PLEASE NOTE donations received through this route will be used to fund the operating costs of the House of Joshua rather than the building project. Please see the post entitled "In the Meantime" dated 7th July 2009 for more information.

You Have The Power to Change This

This is Tahanan Na Kabataan (The House of Youth). Basically it is a jail for young boys from the age of about 7 or 8 up to 17. Some have commited serious offences but not all of the kids who are detained here have committed crimes. Some are here just becausse they have nowhere else to go, except living rough on the city streets.

If you find this picture unacceptable please click on the Paypal button to the left of the screen. You have the power to change this! So do something now - support our House of Joshua appeal.

More information at the Lifenet Children's Foundation website

Congratulations to A2HW

Hearty congratulations to our friends at the medical charity, Aid to Hospitals Worldwide, based like us, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. They have just been named as the most innovative new programme at the East of England Business in the Community Awards for Excellence, sponsored by Anglian Water.

Set up by Mike Coleman about 5 years ago A2HW (as the are most often called) collect a whole range of surplus medical equipment, ranging from beds and wheelchairs to surgical instruments, microscopes, bandages and dressings and even kidney dialysis machines and other major pieces of kit from the NHS, private hospitals and other sources. They refurbish and dispatch this equipment to those in need all over the world.

Although they have only been operating for a short period of time the work has grown so much that they now need to find much bigger premises than the building they currently occupy on the site of the old hospital laundry in Bury St Edmunds.

Not only does the work of A2HW benefit people in other countries where medical facilities are limited and there is not the funding to buy such equipment, but it also saves the British tax payer a lot of money too. Every year the National Health service spends millions of pounds on landfill tax to dispose of equipment that is still perfectly functional but is either out dated or surplus to requirements.

As a charity we have reason to be grateful to Aid to Hospitals Worldwide for the help that they have given to us. They have supplied us with a number of computers for education and missionary projects in the Philippines that we support. They have also provided us with wheelchairs, mobility aids, a nebuliser and first aid equipment for a school for children with disabilities. We know that they do a brilliant job and we are absolutely delighted that they are receiving recognition for their hard work.

New Lifenet Website

Our Philippines mission partner in the House of Joshua project, The Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. has got a new website and blog.

You can find it here http://lifenetfoundation.webs.com/

All Aboard With Blogger

We've had a blog for quite a while now but we've just switched to using Blogger for more functionality and to reach a bigger audience. So if this is the first time you've come across us, welcome!

We're a UK based Christian Charity comitted to helping people in the Philippines escape from the trap of poverty. We believe in giving a hand-up and not a hand-out. As someone once said "If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. But if you give him a net you can feed him for life". That's exactly what we are about -providing tools, equipment, training and education to give people the power to change their own lives.

The population of the Philippines is around 80 million and around half of these people live in poverty (officially defined by the Philipine Government as having less than 47 pesos a day, about £0.60 per person, to live on). We know that we can't help all these people but, with your help, we can make a real difference for some of them.

So how can you help? There are lots of ways. For a start please subscribe to this blog and share it with your friends. We have a Facebook group too. Post a link on your own website, blog or social network page - that way we will get more traffic coming here.

You could join our child sponsorship program - more information on our website http://www.conroyrendoncharity.co.uk

You could make a donation - there's a Paypal button on the left.

Or you could organise your own fund-raising event on our behalf. We are currently putting together a resource library of Powerpoint presentations and photographs and will post details here when they are available.

And, if you shop online in the UK you could try using the Easy Fundraising shopping portal. There you will find hundreds of big name retailers, insurance companies and service providers all of whom will make us a donation when you buy online through Easy Fundraising - and it doesn't cost you a penny!

House of Joshua Getting Started

The plans have been finalised and the House of Joshua building program is about to get under way.

The first step is to fence the site and to raise the level of the part of the plot that the house will actually stand on by about one metre to reduce the risk of flooding. Then the foundations can go in. If possible we want to get this first stage completed before the rainy season begins in July / August.

The whole project will cost something like 5 million Philippine pesos (about £ 70,000 at current exchange rates) so we have some serious fund raising to do.

When complete the House of Joshua will provide accomodation for up to 28 orphaned and abandoned children who currently live on the city streets or who are housed elsewhere in inappropriate facilities like the local jail.

If you would like to support this project with a donation you can do so safely online with Paypal

Land For The House of Joshua - Video

It was exciting for us yesterday to actually walk over the land for the House of Joshua Children's Home, in company with the architect, Susan, and try to envisage the building on the site at Canitoan.

The land is just over 1200 square metres in area and the house (a two storey building comprising some 600 square metres of floorspace) will occupy about a quarter of it facing eastwards.

We also got to look over the draft plans and to see an artists impression (above) of what the finished building will look like.

Here's a short video clip of the land. You can get an idea of the scale of it from the people in it.

On The Recieving End

It is always exciting for us to be able to help people in need by sending them tools and equipment that they can use to better their lives and to assist others. It has been even more exciting to spend a few days in the Philippines, "on the receiving end", and meeting with the people who have been the beneficiaries of that aid.

Yesterday we visited the Procare School for children with disabilities and saw first hand the teachers and children using the toys, books, computers and mobility aids that we had provided for them.

books at Procare 'special school'

Today we went to Nehemiah House, a residential home for girls rescued from prostitution, and again met with both the staff and the girls (age 7-18) who live there. They were so pleased to show us the things that we had shipped out to them last November being put to good use in rebuilding young lives.

sewing machine in use at Nehemiah House

But the most exciting thing of all was for us to be here in the Philippines when the wheelchairs that we had packed up and shipped a few weeks ago (see the blog post entitled "Speedy Wheelchairs") were delivered to the place where we were staying. One chair will be taken to Procare in the next few days and the other is for a little boy crippled by polio. We had also packed a load of children's clothing in with the wheelchairs by way of padding.

Some garments were immediately taken to a very poor family living a bit further up the street. Within an hour we saw the 9 year old daughter skipping down the road in her new dress. This evening we handed over another big bag of clothes to a church who are undertaking a medical mission in some tribal areas in the mountains tomorrow.

High Speed Wheelchairs

No sooner do we get a bunch of aid delivered but we then get requests for more. We were already working on two more batches of tools, sewing machines and computers for livelihood creation programs but yesterday an urgent request for a wheelchair for a boy with polio came into our office.

A couple of emails, a couple of phone calls and not one, but two wheelchairs were sourced, some big cardboard boxes were scrounged from a local furniture shop and the wheelchairs were packaged up, along with some kids clothing ( good padding that fills spare space in the boxes with something useful) and they are now ready for shipment on Tuesday.

A big vote of thanks to Aid to Hospitals Worldwide for supplying the chairs so quickly and to Gary Mills at Tagalog Balikbayan Services for arranging the transportation (plus our friend David for finding some boxes) at such short notice.

And then today another request arrives this time for another set of mechanics tools and some construction tools. It looks like 2009 will be even busier than last year!

Aid Consignments Arrived in the Philippines

We have just heard that the four consignments of tools, clothing, sewing machines and computers that we shipped in December have all arrived safely at their destinations and are already being used to minister to people in need.

In all we shipped 22 boxes to four beneficiaries. Procare - a school for children with dissabilities, Nehemiah House - a home for young girls rescued from the sex trade, Project Destiny - a Youth With A Mission ministry to street children in Butuan City and Lifenet Children's Foundation - our mission partner in Cagayan De Oro City, again working with street children.

Flood Affects Thousands

In the early part of January several days of very heavy rain caused the Kagayan River to overflow inundating many parts of Cagayan De Oro City with several feet of dirty polluted water. Thousand of people were forced to leave their homes and take shelter in places like basketball courts and school gymnasiums. Many of the worst affected areas were the poor squatter communities living along the sides of the river and under the bridges. The waters have receded now but it will take a long time for people to recover from this disaster, especially the poor who have lost everything. Now our objective of supplying tools and equipment to help people start their own small businesses becomes even more important. We need money to fund the shipments.

Where It All Began

It all started about six years ago, when a family member who worked in Christian Missions visited the Philippines and saw the needs of people there. A few of us started sponsoring children from a poor squatter community to enable them to go to school.
As word got about several friends joined in and it just grew until it made sense to set up a charity to manage things properly and to benefit from being able to reclaim tax on the donations under the UK 'Gift Aid' scheme.
Since then we have established a number of good local contacts and partner organisations whom we work alongside to help people escape from the trap of poverty and to advance education.
Although child sponsorship remains an important part of what we do we have also got quite heavily involved in helping individuals and small groups of people by training them and providing tools and equipment to set up their own small businesses. We have contacts in the UK who collect, refurbish and supply tools for self reliance projects across the world. We started by helping fund the training of 10 ladies as dressmakers. We then supplied them with a set of sewing machines, some dress patterns, materials and the like and they are now up and running as a dress making workshop.
Towards the end of 2008 we shipped almost a ton of computers, tools and equipment to four different organisations. One was a school for children with a wide spectrum of disabilities. they wanted to teach some of the older children some craft skills such as carpentry. The other three recipients were Christian missionary organisations working with homeless children. Again their plans were to teach the older children carpentry, sewing and mechanical skills so that they will be able to obtain employment when they get older.
We have now received two requests to supply carpentry, mechanics and agricultural tools to set up workers co-operative training and employment schemes in poor slum areas. In order to cover the shipping costs for both consignments we will need to raise about £ 1500.
Our biggest and most exciting project is to raise money to build a home for orphaned and abandoned children.
A piece of land has already been bought and plans drawn up. We have some money in hand but need another £ 70,000 or so to get the building completed. This will provide accommodation for 28 children plus staff to run the home.
Of course there will be ongoing running costs too. The House of Joshua (as it is to be called) will not be just another institution but a proper home providing care and support in a family like environment. Children will be able to attend school as well as learning other important life skills. You can find more information on our website http://www.conroyrendoncharity.co.uk/ and from our partner organisation, The Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. who will be actually building and running the home.
You can also keep up to date on everything that is happening by joining our Facebook group and by subscribing to this blog.