Sewaid » Philippines

Sewaid workshops are making masks and more !

Tony Castley — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 11:20:25 +0000

SEWAID PHILIPINES

Our Sewaid workshop in the Philippines is meeting the needs of the time, by making masks and other protective gear.

Our amazing Maggie and her team have already produced over 10,000 masks for the Army and other services , and are now also making full protective suits. Maggie, you are wonderful and you have always responded to the needs in your community.

SEWAID FIJI

Peter Drysdale for our Sewaid workshop at Koriopeta Model Homes, has advised that they are also flat out making masks.

Also our shipment of new equipment that we sent them last month, is due to arrive about this time. We have donated to them a new Singer Industrial sewing machine, a heavy duty Singer portable sewing machine, new Triumph over- locker plus cutting mats, rotary cutters etc. to upgrade their new sewing workshop.

PHOTOS FROM SEWAID PHILIPPINES (click to enlarge and read titles)

SewAid Philippines Update

Tony Castley — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 04:17:44 +0000

Our SewAid team in the Philippines are doing some amazing work!

Classes teaching displaced women.
Due to the problems in Mindanao , women from some communities are now displaced and there are others who are without citizenship. Maggie our wonderful leader has undertaken to teach a number of these women to sew in conjunction with a Government program. You will see from the photos the facility where they are working is very sparse as the cutting must be done on the floor and the sewing is by hand. But it keep these women engaged and away for the many social problems they face. A big congratulations to Maggie and her team for the graduation ceremony last Saturday for 73 of these women who have passed the course.

And so we are currently planning to build a mobile training vehicle where machines and equipment could be taken to these remote areas so that this training can be done using good equipment and training aids.

Back at the SewAid workshop in Gingoog, business is as busy as ever with plenty of orders for band, dance and cultural uniforms.

Also they will shortly be making some bags for Rotary Down Under. If any reader is visiting Philippines in the next month or two, and has the capacity to bring back some of these bags on the plane, please let us know.

Days for Girls distribution in Manila , Aug 7th 2016

Tony Castley — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:04:39 +0000

Manila – DFG and Rotary 7/8/ 2016
After spending 5 days in Hong Kong, three of which we spent with Don and Celeste Mergens staying at the Shanri-la Hotel in Kowloon, we flew into Manila on Sunday 7th for a very busy afternoon and evening.
We caught a cab from the airport to the Remington Hotel where we were met by Arlene Amisola, from the Cararoo Foundation. The Cararoo foundation is headed by our friend Maurie Schockman from the Rotary Club of Northlakes Toukley.
Arlene took us to their project at Merville, which is an inner city slum where 450 families live in the most terrible filthy conditions. They live in crude toilet size “houses” made of scavenged materials, in an area what is a mud bowl littered with rubbish. and thru which runs a creek which is more or less an open sewer. We were here some years before and we had expected that the conditions might have improved, but no, they were still the same. Cararoo focusses on educating and helping about sixty of the school aged children and they have built a bamboo community building which acts as a classroom, kitchen and storeroom for their operations.
Today Arlene had arranged for 24 teenage Cararoo girls to attend a Days For Girls program. The program was given by Celeste the founder of DFG, and Celeste quickly captured the girl’s enthusiasm and soon they were singing the “happy birthday hands “song and really engaging in the wonderful health and hygiene training. At the end, all the girls were given a Days for Girls kit, which we brought with us. These kits being made by Sandra and a few of the Central Coast DFG ladies.
Part way thru the presentation one of the girls passed out, and we were very concerned for her as she had only a very weak pulse and her body was cold. We gave her some water and she showed a little improvement when a man carried her off to her home. It appeared that no medical help was immediately available in this area on a Sunday. We have now heard she has recovered and is OK. The reason for her passing-out was that she was dehydrated due to lack of clean water available in the village. I asked if they have people die in the village as a result of the lack of water and the answer was – yes, but more die from Typhoid – which as we know is caused by polluted water.
Can you imagine, in a built up city like Manila and just near the airport, people are dying from lack of clean water! We don’t know many things as to how these people survive in these shocking living conditions: For example -how do they wash? Someone said they wash in that filthy creek, but that couldn’t be possible.
It is very disturbing to visit this slum, and we can only hope that the DFG program and the training that Celeste gave them, will help these girls a little, and we are very thankful for the great work that Maurie , Arlene and the Cararoo Foundation do. Thank you also to Celeste and Don and the other DFG people who assisted with this program.
On a lighter side, there is a story about the last time we visited, when Sandra’s good shoes were so destroyed by the mud that she threw them out. So for this visit we did take old shoes – and this time both Sandra and I threw them out after the visit. The black mud and fifth is just so terrible, it would be very difficult to clean and revive our shoes after visiting this slum.
The work of the Cararoo Foundation can be seen on their website: www.cararoo.com.au and any donation to their foundation would greatly assist them with them work.

Report by: PDG Tony Castley

Recent projects from SewAID Philippines

Tony Castley — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 08:19:27 +0000

Here are some photos of recent outfits our very clever sewers have made at our SewAID workshop In Gingoog Mindanao Philipines

SewAID Update June 2015

Tony Castley — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 02:19:17 +0000

Philippines

Our SewAID workshop in Gingoog continues to grow with more and more work coming in. Here are some photos, and I see they are making more Rotary bags !!

News Update April 2015

Tony Castley — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 02:00:41 +0000

Future Programmes

Santo Vanuatu

Due to the devastation cause by the recent hurricane, our proposed new Sewaid programme for Vanuatu has been postponed for the time being.

Fiji

Our main programme that we are working on now is for a new sewing workshop at Koroipita Model Village, Lautoka Fiji. In fact Glenda our head teacher is in Fiji this week making the final arrangements. The program is likely to be in mid August (school holidays). All the details will be in the New Programmes section of this website shortly.

We recently prepared two beautiful Janome sewing machines along with some accessories for Cathy Dearie (daughter of Anna who works at Hobbysew Erina) who has along with others taken them to the small Island off Pacific Harbour in Fiji where they are setting them up in a school and teaching the teachers how to start a sewing program for the students. We will get a report and photos when Cathy gets back.

South Africa

Gosford North Rotary – still bubbling along but no new news to report.

East Africa

Some of us will be going back to East Africa probably in September. We will be visiting potential new programmes in Uganda and Kenya. We also have a commitment to do a new program at the school of St Jude Tanzania in 2016.

Gingoog Philippines

Due to unrest in Gingoog and Mindanao, it is not entirely safe to visit there now. We will have to wait for the position to change before we can plan a new visit. But the sewing workshop, so brilliantly managed by Maggie, is still very busy. They have just completed an order to make 500 Days for Girls kits and likely to get repeat orders consistently now. Also they are very busy making school uniforms and Government employee’s uniforms.

Sad news from Gingoog

Many of you will remember Joan who was one of our students back in 2012 who was 23 at the time and expecting her fourth child. The baby which was born in April 2013 was a little boy whom they named Anthony – after me and he became my adopted grandson! Well on Sunday March 22nd , Anthony died in hospital from Typhoid. Along with Maggies help we tried to get him the very best care but unfortunately they couldn’t save him. A very very sad time for Joan and everyone concerned. Below is a photo of Joan and Anthony the last time we were there. He was a lovely child. It is so sad to think that had he been in Australia he would not have died – we certainly live in the lucky country.

Joan with baby Anthony

New RAWCS number: 22-2006-07 Worldwide

We are pleased to advise that we have been given a special “Worldwide” status for our RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) number. This now means we do not have to apply for a new number for each project. Donations or costs for equipment etc can be sent thru RAWCS and receive an Australian Tax deduction. However unfortunately, the Government rules have changed recently and RAWCS can no longer give a deductible receipt for money for airfares or accommodation etc. Only donations and money spent on materials for the project can have a tax deductible receipt.

Regards
Tony Castley

News Update February 2015

Tony Castley — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 02:00:30 +0000

Prospective new SewAid Programs

There is some good news in that we are working on some new SewAid team trips which are starting to look hopeful. The ones we are having discussions with are:

Vanuatu: Back to Santo, Luganville again. Same Rotary club and area that we did in 2008, but this time to set up a workshop of the type we have in Uganda and Philippines. They are getting regular visits from cruise ships now, and so they have a ready made market for some good garments etc.

Fiji: We are having some discussions with a Rotary club in Fiji to set up a workshop in a community centre they already have in place.

South Africa: We have two inquirers from South Africa and one from Mozambique. Plus we are talking with School of St Jude, Tanzania again. One of the South African inquiries is from an organisation called Operation Uplift of South Africa. You can watch their video on YouTube – and is a project well supported by the Rotary Club of Gosford North
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OQV38OfJDg

News from SewAid Gingoog, Mindanao Philippines

Maggie and our SewAid workshop in Mindanao continues to get lots of work and they are often interesting and challenging orders.

They once again made the most of all the garments for the local annual community variety show – see photos below , and now they also have the contract for all the school uniforms in the school zone. Additionally they also have been contracted to make 500 Days for Girls Kits for the DFG program in Mindanao. If you are not familiar with the Days for Girls program, take a look at their website or Facebook page.
http://www.daysforgirls.org/
https://www.facebook.com/DaysForGirlsAustralia

Regards
Tony Castley