Foundaton for Single Pinay Moms in College

At age 23, Leanne started Teacher's College in July 2014. As a poor, single mom of 2 beautiful girls, she had managed to finish high school and get into College.

But...

8 weeks later, she dropped out. In her own words: "I can't survive on 300 pesos a day, I don't want to be rich, i just want to give my kids what they need... Better to use my transport costs to school for them, for food, milk, diapers..."

So Leanne and her friends decided to start this Foundation.

Purpose: To create a Trust Fund to support single young moms in the Philippines to finish their education.

Cost: Leanne, and others like her, need more than 300 pesos a day ($8). If she had 500 pesos----that's about $12 a day---she could feed her kids AND go to school....and the benefits to her and her kids would be enormous for such a small amount.

So all she needs is another 200 pesos ($4) a day---about the price of a cup of coffee.

How: If everyone could contribute even just a few dollars, the Foundation could get investment returns, build up its funds, and Leanne and other young girls could get the education they deserve.

Benefits: These poor girls get a chance to make a life for themselves and their kids; they break the cycle of poverty; they give their kids a chance in life; they can give back to Philippine society more in value.

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US ?

Either donate a few dollars here through PayPal (see button below)

or send a check/MO/cash to PO Box 827 Jamison. 2617. Canberra. Australia (checks made out to P. Mathews)

Buy any one of the following e-books from Warrior Publishers (through http://www.Smashwords.com), so all net proceeds go to the Foundation:

1. Samantha Guimoi and the Trinity of Terror, by Trinitee T'Chong ISBN 978-0-646-57147-8 $4.99. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444048

2. Asian Cam Models: Digital Virtual Virgin Prostitutes? by Dr. Paul Mathews $3.99. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/447769

3. MY RIDDLE BOOK. 170 all-time riddles & jokes. by Jhenna Umali $1.99. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/456860

4. TRAVELLERS IN TAIWAN (旅人在臺灣 ) Reflections of Formosa ( 映像福爾摩莎) By Shi-Hui Lee (English and Chinese versions available !!) $2.99. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/458374

Click on the links above to take you to Smashwords where you can read about each e-book and buy one ! (if you don't have an e-reader, you can still download a PDF version to read on your PC)

OR Click on DONATE to make these girls' lives just a little better. Please. Salamat.

Leanne's story:

Leanne has two children, aged 4 and 2, both girls. The children are frequently sick, usually the flu or stomach upset. They like and depend a lot on powdered milk, especially at night. "If they don't have their milk at night they get makulit (annoying), and restless", she explained.

Leanne and her children live with her mother, who sells vegetables in the local market, and her brother, who is in 2nd year college, in a house that they rent in a relocation settlement. It is an area that has few employment opportunities, and few amenities apart from basic services.

Leanne became pregnant to her de facto partner, Atok, about 5 years previously, when he was 25 years old and she was 18. A short time after the birth of their first child, Lyiane, he left her and lived with another girl; then he returned to Leanne. She accepted his return because he was, after all, the father of her first child, and she wanted to "protect" the child's name, she wanted a whole family, not a broken one. However, Atok was often unemployed, drank heavily, and "always looking at other girls" (chic-boy).

After a short time he got her pregnant with a second child, Samantha, then he left again, to live with a new girlfriend in the same neighbourhood. For Leanne this was the final break, she would not take him back again.

By working for the last 4 years in any small jobs she is lucky to get occasionally, Leanne has managed to finish high school and commence College to become a teacher. She expects to graduate in about 4 years, at age 27. She sees a College degree as "an escape from poverty."

But her years of work and life have never been smooth. Leanne is constantly short of money for food, and especially for milk for her children. She had already pawned her TV, her sala (lounge), and eventually her cell phone. In her own words:

"I have pawned it [the cell phone] in a small pawnshop here coz my friends had no money to lend me, but it has interest. They price it at 400 peso but it has interest of 80 pesos. I have no choice. Bought small milk today already for 250 pesos, dinner 50, got 100 pesos left until tomorrow. I will get my phone back maybe soon nalang. I will use the money what ur going to lend me for food again."

To add to her woes, she also became sick with vertigo/dizziness, which prevented her from working as much as she needed. Again she requested that I help her with the costs of her medical tests and medication. She clearly needed a rest.

Leanne exists on a day-to-day basis of borrowing money, repaying others with borrowed money, so as to enable her to borrow again at a later time. She had borrowed 3,000 pesos from me to treat her medical condition, even sending me a picture of the hospital to prove she was genuine. And she is genuine.

Following that, she told me of her next pending commitments: that she needed food for her children, diapers, the rent was due soon, as were the electricity and internet bills, she needed to pay for one daughter's schooling needs and repay some other debts, pay for her end-of-year exams, and could not afford to buy medicine, which would enable her to work.

In addition, her grandmother (lola) had been taken to hospital in a coma; no doubt Leanne would need to contribute to medical expenses and, at worst, funeral expenses. Her lola was in fact discharged from the hospital because her family could no longer pay for medical treatment; she lay at home in a semi-coma, with only slim hope that she would reach her 87th birthday, just one month hence. She died a few days later.

Leanne frequently referred to suicide. She was sick, tired, stressed, unable to work as much as she needed, in debt, and her youngest daughter was again sick. She encapsulated her life situation by saying: "I hate being like this, always debts and problems."

Having started out at College at the beginning of June 2014, she found in a few weeks that, in reality, College left little time for her to work, when ever she could get it. Thus by late June she came to realize that education was expensive; it was not just the semester fees for enrollment or the uniforms she may have to buy, but costs associated with extra "curricular" activities—excursions, travel, books, etc.

Education in the Philippines, it seems, continually places additional demands on students, such that only those who can afford these "extras" can get an education; and, of course, it is only those who are already reasonably well-off, with parents who themselves are probably educated, who will be educated, thus perpetuating socio-economic inequality.

Students like Leanne would never be able to afford to raise themselves from poverty without outside help.

And it is exactly this outside help that Leanne and others need NOW, and that YOU can help with, by donating even just a small amount—$2, or $5—or by buying one of the listed e-books that Dr. Mathews has donated for this purpose.