Current Projects

Cottage Industries Program

The most pressing need for the residents of these villages is to generate income. Residents of each village have remarkable skills which are unique to their tribal background. Our goal is to provide startup capital to develop and market the products. Some of the products include brooms, decorative mats, jewelry, herbal medicines and clothing. We will also provide funds for selected families to raise goats, swine, and poultry. One half of the offspring will be utilized for food; the other half will be distributed to other families.

Update (Dec 06)

This was the foundation's first project and it has been unbelievable successful. We have given the "seal of success" to the entire program and our only involvement will be to follow up periodically and to help them both expand programs and market their handicraft products both in the Philippines and abroad. H.E.L.P. Foundation was formally recognized by the mayor of Malaybalay, Bukidnon, for its contribution in building a better life for the people of Kulaman.

Goats Galore!! This project has the most potential to be really successful and make a significant difference in the lives of the rural poor in Bukidnon. As in most cases, I am growing in knowledge as the project expands. Initially, we were providing goats to selected poor families and these families were supposed to give the offspring to another family and theoretically the project would perpetuate itself. Well, in real life, it didn't work that way. Typically, nanny goats give birth to twins, or triplets, but seldom have only one offspring. Amazingly, the nanny goats that I provided to families only had one offspring and many times that one offspring died or at least that was what was reported! So the self-perpetuation in many cases, ended in the first generation. So I went back to the "drawing board" and modified the distribution plan. I decided that if this program was going to work, I was going to have to spend some of my own money to develop a "closed loop" system. Initially, we are constructing a building to house the purebred goats ("breeders and nanny's). In January, we will provide families with pregnant crossbred females. After the female delivers and upon weaning, one of the female offspring will given back to the foundation to be bred and distributed to another family. Our goal is to double the size of the goats through selective breeding and have 150 families with goats by October, 2007. We will also be experimenting with milk goats as an alternative milk source for young children.