Last year, you helped us raise a water appeal fund focused on providing lifesaving water resources for water tanks for schools and education centres, village boreholes and critical water & hygiene kits for families in Syria recovering from earthquakes.

We launched our Water Appeal to focus on a number of education projects in East Africa & South East Asia:

• Upendo orphans & vulnerable children centre and St Joseph’s Secondary school in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Loyola Secondary school in Wau, South Sudan
• Abay Mado Academy in Ethiopia
• Apu Palamguwac Cultural Education Centre in the Philippines.

These schools and centres are all in need of water tanks as well as the needed gutters and drainage systems to provide communities with access to safe water and proper sanitation facilities.

The Apu Palamguwan Cultural (APC) Education Centre has been supporting indigenous culture, language, and the relationship with the land (gaup) as the basis for educating children in Upper Pulangi, Mindanao, in the Philippines for almost three decades.

The Pulangi River is where the Pulangiyēn people draw their identity and many villages in Upper Pulangi have been limited in sustaining the quality or quantity of good water throughout the year.

Understanding the fundamental link between water, forest, and biodiversity, including agrobiodiversity of traditional crops and products, is critical – This is why, as well as tackling lack of access to clean and safe water, APC aimed to improve community water and sanitation systems in the communities and Mindagulos school, one of the connecting schools APC is supporting. Thanks to water appeal fundraising the establishment of water tubs were constructed as well as forest regeneration areas that protect water sources.

Pulangiyen women with their children socialize under shelter.

Threats to water affect so many facets of community life and harms solidarity as conflict can arise when usable water is scarce and the supply of clean water for household use is threatened by other land uses and claims.

The construction of the toilets and tubs for the APC Mindagulos School has not only tackled lack of access to water recently but has addressed the needs of the community to support the growing demand for culture-based education in the uplands.

The involvement of community members in the construction has also fostered better relationships with the Mindagulos community and as well as enabling upskilling as construction work provided marginalised workers with income.

Thanks to your help and generosity, you have supported a marginalised community at risk. Water is something that is often taken for granted on this side of the globe but for the Pulangiyēn people your support has saved and improved the lives of their families and loved ones.

Thank you for the gift of water!