Jon Pound

Jon Pound - Holy Ganga - River Ganga Swim Challenge

Fundraising for The Philippine Community Fund

Story

Following the Sponsored Salsa events last year, first a thanks to all who helped raise 220.00GBP for the Children of Tondo...

Hi there.Welcome to Jon Pounds fundraising page......

Following a first a Successful Contract as IT Project Manager/Development manager for Working Links plc, and after 8.5 years at Lloyds, Banking Group, Jon Pound, has taken on his biggest Project yet - recovery from a personal injury, which was causing him much discomfort via neck and back pain.

Jon made the priority call to address this via pursuit of Yoga and through swimming in October 2010 travelling to Yoga Mecca's of California and India to rejuvenate his body after 15 years behind desks!

As the latest part of this project, Jon is concluding his time in India
having already bagged an International qualification to teach yoga, a diploma in massage,
with.............

a forthcoming Holy Ganga - River Swim Challenge .... Please see youytube clip attached below
for full details!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbyoVytNb1Q

Many thanks in advance

Jon Pound

Director of Unstoppable Performance & Success Ltd.

jonnypound@googlemail.com

http://www.justgiving.com/jonpound

About the charity - Children of Tondo

Anyway.. I used to rent off a groovy old Dr of Chemistry who left the country in the last years and moved to the Phillipines and was teaching at a top school. Now... it made him sick seeing kids chauffered to school, when he knew there were a Thousand Children starving and scraping together a bleak existance by scavenging on rubbish dumps just 3 miles away!

Anyway, Andy quit his job at a top paid school. Yes thats right HE QUIT HIS JOB and joined forces with another lady, on a project teaching people and luring the kids from the dump (1st 2 pics) and into the classroom. [3rd Pic. ]

Now he's doing well, and currently has lured close to 500 kids off the dump site, but has 500 more to go. There's also the problem of the rainwater a foot deep and smelly horrible water every time this happens.

So... a new school, the largest ever built is in plan. But this costs money. This is all being done under a registered charity..... go to http://pcf.ph/ and see all the details. Click on “What We Do” then “New School” you can actually watch us building the new school.

So, what am I doing?

Well, I've got 5.5 months off work [unpaid] and am passionate about travelling, dancing and learning new dance styles. For sure after learning new dance styles, I will teach the basics to newbies when i return, as I believe this gives people tremendous confidence and enjoyment, and helps people break out of the everyday rut some people get stuck in!.

So... as well as my aim to rejuvenate my body, I thought, wouldnt it be great to add another purpose to my trip that will propell me to learn more moves and styles whilst at the same time as helping the children of Tondo!!?!

This is what I came up with

Im jonnypound@googlemail.com

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Philippine Community Fund gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

MORE BELOW--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do decide that you would like to help there are several options. If you'd like to donate directly, outside of this site, then that all helps, and I'm not especially bothered about tracking the monies on here, as long as you email me what you've donated I can track this separately.

Alternatively if you wanted to you could sponsor me via the sponsor forms I'm sending around.

Lastly, the other options are listed below.

Andy's indicated £15 a month is roughly what each child costs, any amounts, smaller or greater, are always much appreciated. This is a project that really works. Everything we get makes children’s lives better.

Go to the web-site: http://pcf.ph/ and see all the details. Click on “What We Do” then “New School” you can actually watch us building the new school, LIVE! Click on “Donate”, you can make regular donations, or a single gift.

If you are in the UK, use our account at HSBC, The Cross, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2AP “Philippine Community Fund”, Sort Code 40-22-09 A/c No: 51835343

From the Philippines: HSBC, ADB Ave, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Manila Current Account 000-075697-040.

Please try to help us somehow. It makes such a difference! Thanks.

Dr. Andy Gudgeon Cellphone: 0920 899 2471 Landline 00 63 + 2 810 9834

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From: Andy Gudgeon [mailto:andy@abccgudgy.f2s.com]
Sent: 17 November 2008 04:35
To: Andy Gudgeon
Subject: The Tondo Project

Hi! The project I am helping with at Tondo is growing fast, and I really need to get some more support for it from anybody and everybody I can. Please will you read this email and then look at the photos? I have to raise 200,000 pesos (2000 pounds) this month, and then increase our income every month to get the new school running in a few months time!

When I came to live in the Philippines in 2007, I was hoping to either join some existing project, or maybe start my own, but soon found that a very special lady called Jane Walker was here already, ahead of me, getting a savagely difficult project off the ground, right here in the North of Manila.

When I arrived, I was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Ateneo University, which was a fine place, but I was never happy, seeing so many students brought in by their own driver in a luxury car, knowing that only 3 miles away, thousands of other children are struggling to stay alive.

All the garbage from this city is taken to a huge man-made mountain, called Smokey Mountain, where over a thousand children, aged 4-16 manage to exist by gathering broken glass, bits of plastic, empty tins, paper, cardboard etc. Many have virtually no clothes, and no shoes; some have no family, or no real place to live. Day and night, they gather what they can, then take their sad little collection to somebody else, to get a few pesos, just enough to get enough rice to stay alive for one more day. The howling winds of the typhoons, the pounding rain, and the scorching sun all have to be suffered. Some are orphans, some have been abandoned, or there may be a grandparent with many brothers & sisters to look after, but no income. Most people cannot find any work, and some are handicapped. They live in a vicious circle. How can they get a job, if they have no clothes or shoes, and can’t read or write?

So Jane pestered the local government people into letting her use a derelict warehouse in the middle of this hell-zone, with little more than roof, walls and a few concrete pillars. Then she spent a year in the UK raising funds to convert it into a school for these deprived children, adding walls, lights & basic amenities, so that some children could be persuaded to try school life instead of life on the garbage dump.

We have all seen photos of children dying from famine in Africa, and maybe wondered what future they might have, even if we can keep them alive. It is different here! If these children can be given a proper education, they can slowly progress to a healthy and successful life. Yes, they mostly start with a miserable situation, often traumatised, depressed, with no self-esteem, just trying to stay alive for one more day, but there is now HOPE. For each child we find in need of help, we first need to find a parent, guardian, then obtain permission to include that child, & find a way to transport them to and from the school each day. We have to find clothes, especially boots, because the area is covered with stinking mud and garbage, often up to their knees.

We pay some parents to work in the school, on old sewing machines, making uniforms for each child. That provides good clothing at low cost, but also provides a little income for those families. Other parents make jewellery, aprons, bags and pencil cases, which are then sold at all fund-raising events. We provide breakfast, lunch and snacks, and even some food to take home after school, which helps their general health, and ensures the support of the people they live with. We need to be confident that each child will keep coming to school, and not return to the garbage dump. We are keeping about 95% of children who start, and we work hard to try never to lose any.

This is a really successful project, moving rapidly with great progress. We get contributions of food, money, books, paper from local companies & UK families, including 450 long-term sponsors, each helping one child to be with us, with £15 a month. We can now pay 23 teachers to provide a good education, and 23 other people to provide support services, such as secretarial, food-preparation, maintenance, security, family liaison, medical checks, non-academic activities, computers etc. The building is a buzz of activity for 12 hours every day, and nearly 500 children are slowly taking their first steps to a proper life. They realise how lucky they are to have this opportunity & always smile.

We also need to look after many more aspects of life in Tondo. The parents come in every 2 weeks, to make sure they become more better parents, helping them to understand diet, hygiene, education, homework & careers, budgets, and to meet one another & bond with us. We help some parents to take practical training to get new jobs.

But the present building is not really big enough to do all the things we need to do, if we want to get all 1000 children off that dump. Also, it is often flooded with stinking brown muddy water & will never be a nice place to visit. So Jane had the idea of building a complete new school & got the use of 1000 square metres of land, closer to the garbage dump, but with no smell, and architects have helped to devise a way to build a complete and impressive 4-storey school from old shipping containers. These have now been lifted into position & welded together; next, plumbing, wiring, staircases and some Air-Con will make it the first school ever to be built from recycled materials. We want to open it in June 09, with 29 classrooms. Jane has been asking everybody to help with this, for money, materials or labour. After many set-backs, with rising costs & technical problems, we are still moving forwards. In June 2008, Jane was awarded the MBE by the Queen, in recognition of her amazing work here in the Philippines.

We have approached the International Schools in Manila, and got textbooks, paper, clothes, shoes, boots, food and more sponsors. Jane goes to Senators, Councillors, Mayors, Religious Groups and other charities, in the constant search for more support.

But teaching these children to read and write is simply not enough. We have to teach them about LIFE: how to get a job, have a proper diet, cook, understand hygiene, budgets, exercise and social dangers. We also have to check for lice, nits, TB and other infections, check immunisations are all carried out, and look after endless bites, spots, scratches and burns, and look after their teeth.

Visit the “old school”; you will be horrified for a while at the outside appearance and smell, but as the air clears, you enter a fairyland of little people, all with huge smiles, mostly children, but some parents, teachers & volunteers. It has a tremendously inspiring atmosphere. Look at the web-site: http://pcf.ph/ and see how many things are being achieved there.

My own tasks are gradually evolving. By next year, I expect to be teaching the older children Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English Language. I am also trying to do some fund-raising, improve the windows & fluorescent lighting, and the paintwork inside the school. I am also responsible for the big library, stocked almost entirely with books donated by other schools or families. I need four big tables now for the library, about 8 ft by 4 ft or more, and some chairs.

People often ask me what we need most. Well, our wish-list is fairly simple. We would love to receive computers and laptops up to 3 years old, printers & ink, paper (both plain & lined), art materials (paint, brushes, crayons) canned & dried foods, tables, chairs, rubber boots, clothes & shoes.

We need to improve our finances greatly, to get this new school up and running, so I am now urgently looking for new people to help us by sponsoring the project, and although £15 a month is roughly what each child costs, any amounts, smaller or greater, are always much appreciated. This is a project that really works. Everything we get makes children’s lives better.

If you are in the UK, use our account at HSBC, The Cross, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2AP “Philippine Community Fund”, Sort Code 40-22-09 A/c No: 51835343

From the Philippines: HSBC, ADB Ave, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Manila Current Account 000-075697-040.

Please try to help us somehow. It makes such a difference! Thanks.

Dr. Andy Gudgeon Cellphone: 0920 899 2471 Landline 00 63 + 2 810 9834