A Long Time Coming

It has taken several months of hard work sorting all the paperwork to apply for tax exemption but at last our shipment of medical aid for Cagayan De Oro City, Philippines is on its way.

Packed with over 8 tonnes of medical equipment kindly donated by Aid to Hospitals Worldwide, and sent on its way today, the 40 foot high-cube container should arrive in early September to re-equip the Barangay Medical Centre at Canitoan where many of the people made homeless by last December's floods have been relocated in a massive tent city.

New, permanent, homes are being built in the area for the flood victims but the village medical centre has virtually no equipment with which to provide even the most basic medical care to its newly enlarged population (now approaching 30,000). Now it will have some of the best equipment in the entire city, including proper hospital beds, a fully functional  delivery room complete with ultrasound machine and resuscitaire, and lots more besides.

As well as medical equipment the shipment includes tool kits to enable flood damaged homes to be rebuilt and to provide a future source of income for those who have lost their livelihoods as well as their homes.

It has been a long time coming but it should be worth it in the end!

boxes of medical equipment and supplies

 Electric beds

Fully adjustable child delivery bed

A dozen ways to eat strawberries

Who doesn't like strawberries? 

A sumptuous 'strawberry tea' garden party hosted by John & Anne Zarattini was a magnificent, if somewhat indulgent, way to raise over £300* for the House of Joshua building fund. We even had some sunshine!


With strawberry meringues, strawberry shortbread, strawberry trifle, strawberry sponge cake (strawberry jam in the middle and strawberries on top), scones with home-made strawberry jam, strawberry cup-cakes or just plain strawberries and cream - there must have been at least a dozen different ways to eat strawberries!

Fund raising doesn't get much better than this!

*Including gift aid tax rebates

In The Groove

What a brilliant time we had last night! An evening of Jazz and Blues, hosted by Horringer Court Community Church, with Val Sinclair and the Pat Brandon Quartet providing the music.

Mary Rendon from our Philippines mission partner, Lifenet Children's Foundation presented a slide show about the House of Joshua and their work with street children during the interval, whilst concert goers munched their way through a mountainous selection of cheese, biscuits and fruit.

With donations adding to proceeds from ticket sales over £1200 was raised towards the House of Joshua building project. A huge thank you to everyone involved!

Jazz for Joshua

Come along to an evening of superb jazz at Horringer Court Middle School, Bury St Edmunds to raise funds for the completion of the House of Joshua  Children's Home.

Tickets available now!

House of Joshua The Final Push

Just yesterday we got the architect's costings for the fourth, and final, stage of construction at the House of Joshua. At almost 1.4 million Philippine pesos (£20,000) it is about £6000 more than we were expecting. We were a little disappointed but with the costings came photos of the roof trusses now being formed and the access road under construction; so we were not overly  discouraged.
And then this evening, completely out of the blue, Horringer Court Community Church in Bury St Edmunds decided to give us another £5,000 towards the project. In addition they are holding a series of fund raising events over the next few months specifically for the House of Joshua.
We are nearly there, and with the substantial number of orphans from the floods in December urgently needing a new home, we just need to give this one last push.

 Access road almost finished and electricity supply pole

Metal roof trusses being fabricated on site

End view showing roof trusses February 2012

Artists impression - what it should look like when finished

Thanks For Flood Donations

We have been amazed by the generosity of our supporters who have donated more than £7000 for emergency relief for flood victims in Cagayan De Oro City enabling us to fund a feeding program, provide basic domestic equipment such as cooking utensils, cutlery and sleeping mats as well as purchase some building materials for repairing houses.
In addition readers of the Bury Free Press newspaper article in Bury St Edmunds Suffolk have donated over a quarter of a tonne of sheets, blankets and tinned food for shipment to families in need.
Thank you to everyone who has made all this possible.
Our main priority now is to complete the House of Joshua Children's Home to provide accommodation for some of the hundreds of flood orphans.
The access road has been built and with electricity now connected to the site work has commenced on fabricating the welded steel roof trusses.
About £14,000 more is needed to get the house ready for habitation.

House of Joshua November 2011 - work is now proceeding to construct the roof

The Philippines Red Cross has estimated the cost to communities of recovering from Tropical Storm Sendong as 262 million pesos (£4 million).

"More than a month on from Sendong and at least 223,000 are still living in emergency shelters, with host families, or in makeshift conditions. It may take a long time for these people to get back into permanent homes, and they will need our support in the interim," said Richard Gordon, Chairman of The Philippines Red Cross.

We continue to support a feeding program and outreach, especially to children living in the tent cities at Canitoan and Agusan.

Sendong - a Month On

It is almost a month since 'Typhoon Sendong' devastated Cagayan De Oro City with catastrophic flash floods that killed over 2000 people and destroyed thousands of houses.

Still many thousands of people are homeless. Many are still staying in schools, basketball courts and other public buildings. At a number of locations large 'Tent-Cities' have been set up with tents provided by Shelter Box Charity and Rotary International. In due course permanent houses will be built on the same sites but official sources are saying that it could take until 2013 to complete this work.

Cooking for 200+

In the meantime our Mission partners, Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. have joined forces with several other organisations and local churches to continue providing hot food to some of these evacuees. We have been pleased to provide funding for this and more money will be sent in the next few days.

It is estimated that around 1000 children are now orphans as a result of the floods and the local authorities are hard pressed to find enough people able to care for them. So we now need to push on and get the House of Joshua children's home completed as quickly as possible to provide a loving and supportive home for some of these children where they can receive help and counselling to start to rebuild their lives.

We need your help and we need it NOW! If you are able to please, please click on the donate button on the left of this page and give whatever you can afford.

£25 will feed 200 people for a day or pay the wages of one of the workmen building the House of Joshua for a week. £2500 will buy the roofing materials for the house but even just £5 will make a significant difference.

We promise you that the money will be spent well and wisely. We have no paid staff and virtually no overheads so everything you give will go where it is needed the most.

More photos of the aftermath of the floods and the relief efforts can be found via our Facebook Page

Local Newspaper Publishes Appeal

T.C.R.C.T trustee Jo Conroy, who is also logistics manager at Aid to Hospitals
Worldwide, with some of the boxes of aid to be shipped to the Phillipines

Local Newspaper for West Suffolk, The Bury Free Press has covered the story of our efforts to provide relief to flood victims in Cagayan De Oro City appealing for it's readership to contribute tins of food and blankets as well as money to help with the costs of shipment. Read the full article here

Sendong Aftermath Video

This YouTube video from some friends of ours shows some more images of the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sendong and the efforts being made by numerous charitable organisations and even groups of private individuals to try and bring some help and comfort to the flood victims.