|
The underlying principle of our commitment with heart and mind is to help people to help themselves. And to do this in a concrete, personal and transparent way. We have adopted the term sponsorship to emphasise the direct relationship to our sponsored children in the Philippine city of Bacolod on the main island of Negros. We want to support children who have no hope for a secure future until such time as they are able to take their lives into their own hands.
We are happy to help therefore, because we have been able to realise our vision of meaningful involvement successfully and in the long term. In the words of our Philippine Administrative Office Manager Bebol J. Carreon: 'The children should not believe that they are successful only because of their sponsor, rather they should realise that they have succeeded with the help of their sponsor and that the success is based on their own effort and hard work."
Commitment with heart and mind is more than just a slogan. In concrete terms: We want to carry on along our path of sympathetic compassionate help. Help which is not seen as charity by our sponsored children, but as a contribution to self-help. Help that does not preserve the present social and economic conditions for posterity, but makes change possible through education.
This means help that does not lead to yet more dependency, but which starts up a free and self-confident dialogue. We have succeeded in setting this in motion. We have already achieved a lot; the success can be seen in the projects which we have been able to realise over the years with your help.
In order to meet new challenges in the future too, we need you. Through sponsorship or support for one of our aid projects you can finance an actual piece of the future.
The Philippines (11 main islands, a total of 7107 islands, of which ca. 6000 are uninhabited and about 4300 unnamed) are a country marked by cultural and ethnic variety as hardly any other.
For four centuries the island state in the Pacific Ocean, once a Spanish and then an American colony, was shaped in social, political and economic respects by Malay, Chinese, Arab, Indian, Japanese and European forefathers. The present population numbers over 75 million inhabitants, who are becoming more and more emancipated and are developing a democratic awareness. Tourists looking for a holiday in exotic climes often associate the country with mainly the tropical heat, the fantastic sandy beaches, the species-rich flora and fauna and the friendly, gentle people, but one should not be blinded by the rose-tinted spectacles of the holiday-maker, and ignore the deplorable state of affairs which the people are confronted with and often at the mercy of.
Despite their impressive variety, over four centuries of foreign rule and mixed cultural influences have also cast their shadow over the Philippines – one has only to remember the news of the kidnapping of holidaymakers on the island of Jolo last year by Islamic rebels, or the corrupt regime of the former actor Joseph Estrada.
Only in January 2001 was the President overthrown before the end of his period of office and replaced by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Thus she became the second female head of state of the Philippines after Corazon Aquino (President 1986-1992). With the inauguration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the people once again hoped for the peace they had longed for and the decline of poverty and criminality. But it is not only the political problems that cause the country a lot of trouble.
The Philippines are part of one of the most geo-tectonically unsettled regions of the Earth. Its exposed situation in the Pacific Ocean and numerous active volcanoes cause earthquakes and seaquakes; the monsoons which leave in their path both terrible droughts and destructive rainfall are responsible for water shortage, failed harvests, tidal waves, and mud slides, and are accompanied by destruction and misery, thus threatening the national economy. The economy of the Philippines is very much at the mercy of the climate because agricultural products represent the main source of income: apart from rice, maize, bananas, pineapples, sugar and abaca fibre, the coconut palm is the third most important export product; this accounts for approx. 10% of the total land area and supplies dried coconut, coconut oil, and coconut fibre. Apart from these agricultural commodities, many metal mineral resources are mined in the Philippines: gold, silver, copper ore, zinc and iron ore, manganese, lead, mercury, cadmium, platinum. Also non metal minerals such as coal, phosphate, marble, limestone, feldspar, sulphur, and sea salt are important raw material deposits. Unfortunately, there is insufficient capital and national capacity to exploit these commodities profitably. The most important commodity exports from the processing industries are electrical, electronic and textile products. In the service sector tourism has been the leader since the eighties. This business is still suffering from the negative image of sex tourism; legal measures should, however, put a stop to this – by stricter punishment of offenders.
| 
