Value of education 2

The church I am attending CCF Ortigas is in the process of finishing building a new nearby complex including a worship centre and school in Pasig (a municipality of Metro Manila) just up the road from the existing location in Ortigas, which will mean that sometime next year it will probably be moving from its current location on the top two floors of a local shopping mall. I was impressed a couple of weeks ago when a new programme was explained that the church are encouraging all its members to get involved with some how.

CCF leadership had met with the local government of Pasig and asked them what they felt were the most pressing needs of the area and how they could be involved in trying to help with these needs. The councillors advised that the greatest concern was the quantity of out-of-school youth - apparently around 60% of Filipino youth do not graduate from High School. In a nation of 92 million people and where according to UN statistics more than 33% of the population (ie about 30 million people) is between the ages of 0 and 14 that is an awful lot of under-educated young people.

The church in conjunction with the local government has set up the Uplift Pilipinas Movement (God of this City - Uplift Pilipinas Movement video)   to H.E.L.P in the areas of Health and nutrition, Education and values formation, Livelihood and jobs and finally Peace and cleanliness. The immediate goal is to set up a programme for 1200 Out-of-School youth to enable them to achieve a High School Diploma equivalent through an Alternative Learning System (ALS video) and members of the church are being asked to sponsor around US$10 a month towards the costs of running this programme.

Having been involved in a small church of mostly foreigners in Nicaragua it has been a change to be attending a massive church made up almost exclusively of Filipinos here in Manila, but I am thrilled to see the local church under local leadership so involved in trying to address the many needs in their nation in such a constructive and collaborative way.