I am off
to the Philippines again, and this time with high expectations. When shortly
before I returned to New Zealand in April 2014, the trustees and friends of my deceased
father had come together for a planning meeting, and we
had dreamed of 'livelihood projects' for poor women and 'educational
assistance' for deprived youth.
Six months on we have half a dozen pigs growing fat and we have sponsors for a couple of
young women.
And what
if we could expand that into two more villages this Christmas, perhaps
combining this for better effect with another community project?
When a
few people get together and put money into something they believe in, the
fashionable term for that is crowd funding, 'the practice of funding a project by
raising small amounts from many people.' What if the word went out and friends of friends would chip in a small amount of money each?
What if it was so easy that it didn't matter how much each gave, because the
next person along would make up the difference?
So on the 'crowdfunding' website givealittle.co.nz there now is a page for the Ifugao Community Support Trust.
Do take
a look. Moral support in itself already goes a long way, but if you mentioned
this initiative over a cup of coffee sometime, then who knows, next time you are together you might be drinking some of the organic Ifugao coffee our supporters have been enjoying .
