We are indebted to Sandra Pursell and her daughter-in-law, Marie Pursell, for bringing to our attention an opportunity to provide an education for one year for 10 elementary school-age children who live and scavenge in the city dump of Naga City, Philippines. For $100, a child is freed for one year from the daily task of scavenging as a means of helping to provide for his or her family, and receives a daily meal, a clean uniform, and the relative luxury of learning to read and write. It is our goal to provide a scholarship opportunity for these students to pursue a higher education, but for now we are grateful that an annual donation of only $1,000 can support the education of 10 children. 

 

We wish to thank Marie’s mother who is from Naga City for initiating the Ina Nin Bokol Foundation with the support of her church congregation in Florida, and for the years that she has given to this work. We are grateful to lend a hand to her efforts. Marie recently returned from the school with these pictures. She also visited the city dump where the students live with their families in what she describes as a foul-smelling and toxic environment. In a small way, ours is opportunity for us to introduce ourselves as Americans in a corner of the world, in a city dump, as citizens who value the sanctity of life and the rights of the individual regardless of politics or religious preference.

 

It was said of the word “arete” that the ancient poet once saw in the moment of athletic victory a kind of transcendence, briefly making radiant an otherwise dark and brutal world.”

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At present, we may view the moment of transcendence as something akin to hope, and make our small investment in such moments as remind us of who we are as we, the people, capable of defining ourselves and each other as worthy of victories and successes that dignify us as human beings. If only that!

 

 $100….Please Join us and improve a life.