“I Love Street Children.” How to Help a Disadvantaged Family in Manila, Philippines

In Manila for work or vacation? Why not bring over a few bags of food, a small donation for medicine, clothes or anything that will help the amazing kids at I Love Street Children. Here’s a quick recount of my last visit, and how you can help make a difference in a needy child’s life.

How You Can Help

I Love Street Children is a shelter (more shelters to come!) in Makati, Manila founded by Just Projects founder, Bryan Thomas, May Gomez, and Eiselle Pascua (EJ). The I Love Street Children shelter supports families by giving mothers and their children a safe place to stay, off the streets. Some of these children are attending school for the first time in their lives, and the mothers have more flexibility to work and earn knowing their children are in a safe environment.

Let’s start this blog by telling you what you can do to help, and how to do it. 

Give Directly

You know that good feeling you get when you help somebody who is in trouble? (Just think of how you felt when you taught somebody kinda old how to use their new iPhone). Well take that feeling, multiply by 100, and that’s the feeling you’ll get when you walk into the shelter carrying the gift of food, a few cool toys, school supplies, or offering any specialized skills you might have (to all you doctors and dentists out there!)

To give directly, contact the people working via the ILST Facebook pages I Love Street Children or  I Love Street Children Campaign. Tell them how you want to help (making sure this is, in fact, the kind of help they need now) and just take a taxi over to the Cash and Carry Mall (click, or see below). They will meet you there and show you the way to the shelter…and help you carry the groceries as well, if that’s what you help with.

Give Indirectly

1. Share this blog post (How self-serving is that, eh!). Share the ILST Facebook pages. Like their posts. And generally help them engage and build their presence so more people find out about this shelter and others they are now working to build.

2. Send a donation. All of the banking information is below. Personally, I did both. I brought over a bunch of food, and also made a small donation.

The Details

And here are some details written by Bryan Thomas that I borrowed from the ILST page.
1. You can make a direct deposit from your bank account to The I Love Street Children account:
*** Swift code: BDO Bank BNORPHMM
Bank account name: Just Projects Philippine Foundation Inc. In the Note or under the name: “For ILSC”
Savings Account: 05400186999
Checking Account: 005408014972

2. Write a check to: Just Projects Philippine Foundation Inc. (underneath that or next to it: For ILSC). Deliver it to May or EJ at the Shelter Home at 3380-D Ibarra Street, Palanan, Makati (2 blocks from Cash & Carry), or contact them via one of the ILSC Facebook pages to set up a time to deliver the check.

3. If you are in the USA or another country outside of the Philippines, go to our Foundation websites, Project AK47 or Just Projects in the USA and click a button to make a donation by credit card. Write that the gift is for ILSC, and our staff will forward the finances to I Love Street Children. If you want to check on your gift to make sure it has been forwarded, you can call our office at 1-615-212-2547 or 1-615-261-8223 (note: one number is for JPI and the other for Divine Inheritance – sister foundations – either will work.)

Visiting the Shelter
Here is a short video of my visit and the kids. When my students in Japan complain about their lives…I just show them this video. Families who have faced incredible hardship, but who have never given up and still laugh and smile. It’s both humbling and inspiring.

Before posting pics from my own visit, here is a link to some more professional photos on Flickr taken by a new addition to the ILSC volunteer group, Nick Conneff. Thanks, Nick!

On that note and without further ado, here are a few pics of my visit to the I Love Street Children shelter in Makati, Manila, Philippines.

MAP to the Cash and Carry Mall, Makati, Manila, Philippines

Have you visited the shelter? Please let me know below. And if you haven’t, then please either share their information, or stop by with something for the kids and families on your next visit. You will never forget these kids. I promise you 🙂