What we do
We focus on women's and children's charities, supporting them through regular visits and donations. We also make ad hoc financial and in-kind donations throughout the year, particularly in time of calamity. We hold a range of fundraising events, the highlight being the Queen's Birthday Ball, held each June.
Our supported communities
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Concordia children's services
Concordia is a children's home based in Santa Mesa, about 30 minutes from Makati, that provides care to abandoned and neglected children and that helps place them in permanent homes.
We shop for baby milk and other household items. Two regular volunteers visit weekly to spend time playing with the children. 
KALAYAAN COMMUNITY MINISTRIES
Kalayaan Community Ministries is based in one of the poorest areas of Tondo and it has been running for the past 8 years. These people come from the area called Smoky Mountain which is the site of rubbish dump and that’s where they earn their living and live. The ministry is run by Ron and Joanna Domingo who are a young inspirational couple from Scotland where most of their donations come from. The people in the area live on a daily wage of 100 pesos per day and their diet is mostly processed foods or pag pag which is the boiled left overs from restaurants like Jollibee. This is cheap and can cost 40 pesos which will feed a family of 4, but it has, as you can imagine, no nutritional value. They started feeding programmes which now provide 2,000 meals a week and the BWA donation enables them to buy fruit for the children in the area. They have also started support groups in the community which has a large drug and gang problem. The groups are for mothers and toddlers, teenage groups as well as support groups for the men. We do visit them but this is not a place for the faint hearted. mother teresa's shelter
Mothers Teresa's is a shelter for malnourished and neglected children, providing temporary care. They provide medication and nursing to children suffering with TB and malnutrition in the area. The children usually spend 6 months there, with only a weekly visit from their families, going home once they are free of TB. We shop for medicines and foodstuffs and visit weekly to play with the children, providing stimulation and socialisation. DOMINICAN SISTERS - MALIBAY
The Dominican Sisters of the Presentation provide services to the Baranagay of 180 Maricaban (or Malibay). This community is one of the poorest in the area and is right on our doorstep. Most of the families living here are informal settlers or squatters. They live with very minimum facilities and more than one family shares a home. They earn money selling foods, driving Pedi Cabs and working as Housemaids. The area is surrounded by Maricaban Creek, which regularly floods causing damage to what little property these people have and spreading disease.
The Dominican Sisters run a number of services including a medical clinical, health programs, education and tutoring to children, services to special needs children and their families, disaster relief and being of service to the community as the need arises. The BWA supports the Nuns in the following programs:
A new sewing machine
Donation of bras for local ladies
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shalom
Shalom is a birthing centre located in Antipolo about an hour drive into the hills above Makati and is a charity we have been involved with since its own birth. Mavis Orton started helping women give birth in her front room in 1992 and this remarkable woman helped create the modern birthing centre that opened in 2013 we visit today. The BWA give a cash donation 4 times a year and this money is used to buy supplies for the centre. Mavis has now retired back to the UK but was awarded an MBE for all her inspirational work in the Philippines. The birthing centre benefits the surrounding community by providing
Each birth costs about 600 pesos (about the cost of a bottle of wine) and includes all the pre and postnatal classes, pre-natal education classes, ante-natal care, birth certificate, ultrasounds and vitamins and supplements. This is a lot of love for a very little amount of money. The running of the centre has been left in the safe hands of Pami Ellis and Cindy Gingererich who are the midwives in charge. They currently deliver 100 babies a month, quite different to the 8 babies a month Mavis initially delivered in her little house, where she bathed them in her kitchen sink. If you come to visit the centre you can still see her home which is still standing next door. Kanlungan
Kanlungan (Filipino for sanctuary) is a non-profit caring institution with a drop-in centre situated in Malate, Kanlungan and several satellite locations where additional care is provided, all supported by BWA. Kanlungan was established in 1998 and is run by Ms Sol Balbero along with her fantastic team of social workers, psychiatrists, house parents and care team. Kanlungan is an emergency drop-in centre for “street children” who are in danger, abused, abandoned or for whatever reason are unable to remain in the care of their families. The centre offers refuge, safety, counselling, health, education and protection. Kanlugan has an incrementally structured welfare programme for children that have especially been subject to physical, sexual, social, substance and emotional abuse. After approximately 10 months at the Malate centre, the children are then split into groups with the girls progressing to a residential home in Laguna where they are sent to a local schools to assure that they receive education and the necessary social skills required to progress into adulthood. The boys progress to the “boys farm” in Cavite which is a rehabilitation centre for ages 14 to 22 years where they develop amongst others, agricultural skills e.g. coffee planting and harvesting - this example includes a commercial enterprise whereby their coffee is sold via a small coffee shop on Taft Avenue, Makati. The farm is a sustainable livelihood project teaching self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Further examples of the organisations successes include a Filipina that entered the program at the age of 9 years and now, in her teens, is working in an administrative role with the management team - boys who have been involved with substance abuse, have also been rehabilitated and are now, following schooling, attending full-time college that will, we hope, provide a solid foundation for future education and employment. The wonderfully dedicated Filipino staff, teach a variety of social and life skills that provides the children with the support and care that they deserve and desperately need. The BWA for its part provides groceries on a monthly basis and a cash rice donation. Project pearls
Project Pearls is an organisation that helps communities in Tondo, Manila. Here the community live on a dumpsite where children have no choice but to live in terrible conditions, with little or no access to schooling. Project Pearls run a scholarship scheme, which all children can apply for. Sponsoring a child pays their school costs as well as providing the uniform, food and school certificates. We funded 11 students during 2016/17 and will fund 7 going forward. We monitor their progress though the year to ensure students attend and pass their classes.
Siena NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL
Siena Night School is located in Taytay and provides regular education in the day time and at night, with sponsored places for underprivileged children who would otherwise be unable to access education. We fund 16 high school students at present, sponsored until the end of high school, they attend classes in the evening. The students' progress is monitored and we visit them periodically. |
How you can help
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We hold regular collections for donated items such as clothes or cans; we also collect toiletries and toothbrushes for distribution in Christmas Hampers.
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