The fight against hunger and poverty in the Philippines will be helped along by this year’s edition of WIT’s Art For Good programme, to be held in conjunction with the WIT conference in Singapore.
WIT’s Art For Good programme is an annual fund raiser that has contributed approximately US$500,000 since 2008 to various organisations in Asia. This year, it will support the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation of the Philippines.
The NVC is a trusted NGO that fights hunger and poverty in the Philippines by providing proper nutrition and access to quality education for children of the poor, as well as sustainable livelihood opportunities for their parents.
The Art For Good programme is run in conjunction with the annual WIT Conference held in Singapore for the last 13 years. This year’s conference, at Marina Bay Sands, co-located with ITB Asia, will be held October 23-25.
“We are delighted to include the Philippines for the first time in our support of the underprivileged in Asia. The Philippines is one of ASEAN’s fastest emerging economies and an increasingly exciting digital and ecommerce market, gaining a credible footprint in the digital infrastructure in Asia,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WIT.
“With a population of 103 million, it has a rapidly expanding middle class, and low cost airlines and the rise of the web and mobile have given these new consumers access to travel. But its rural communities, spread out across 7,107 islands, remain poor and in need of a helping hand. Travel can and should provide that.”
Love bags for children of the Talaandig tribe
The NVC was set up in 2012 by a group of like-minded individuals who believe that nation building and effective change can be accomplished when people band together and implement meaningful, community-level social development activities.
Said Therese Ng, one of the volunteers, “This is inspired by Mother Teresa’s quote ‘If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.’ The founders of NVC sees the organisation as one doorstep in the universe of many doorsteps.”
NVC focuses on three pillars – providing proper nutrition and access to quality education for children of the poor, as well as sustainable livelihood opportunities for their parents.
As part of its nutrition programme, it manufactures Mingo, a nutritious instant supplementary food made of power ingredients – rice, mung beans, and moringa.
One key project this year is providing emergency relief to children affected by the war that erupted in May 2017 in the Southern Philippine city of Marawi, forcing the evacuation of the entire city to neighbouring areas.
“Working with ground partners, NVC has provided more than 500,000 Mingo Meals for infants and toddlers of evacuee families since the start of June 2017 and is ongoing, since the war has not ended, and Marawi citizens are not yet allowed to return to their homes,” said Ng.
Proceeds raised at WIT will go towards the indigenous people living in the mountains of Southern Philippines
Proceeds raised at WIT, after costs, will go towards the indigenous people who live in the mountains of Southern Philippines. “The Talaandig tribe are an extremely hard-to-reach community and do not have ready access to government services. Malnutrition is high among children and adults have difficulty finding livelihood opportunities.”
The breakdown of projects Art For Good will support is as follows:
1. Mingo Meals for 153 children, daily for six months (Php 2,500 per child for six-month feeding). Total: Php382,500 or US$7,650
2. Construction of a day care centre: 12 ft x 16 ft approximate cost Php 100,000 or US$2,000
3. Provision of Love Bags for the 123 children from kinder to grade 5 (Php 750 for 1 Love Bag). Total: Php 92,250 or US$1,845
A Love Bag is a sturdy school backpack filled with one years’ worth of school supplies. We have found that the children of the tribe, due to lack of money, have woefully inadequate school supplies. They break one wooden pencil into 2-3 pieces to share among themselves, and carry their meagre supplies in disposable plastic bags.
Jimmy and his team will be at WIT to create the art piece
It is hoped a grand total of US$11,495 will be raised through a Charity Auction held at the closing of WIT on Oct 25 which will see two art works produced by Singapore’s WACOM Ultimate Artist winner of 2017, Jimmy Ling aka Dreadjim. Jimmy blends both digital and traditional art to create commercial and personal fantasy works and runs art classes for aspiring artists locally and internationally.
Jimmy and his team from LionHeart Studio will be at WIT to create a collaborative piece of art with delegates around this year’s theme of “Better Travel” as well as present his own interpretation.
The two pieces of art will be auctioned off along with a selection of exclusive travel experiences curated by WIT.