During our mission trip to the Philippines last year, I came across this child that was asleep on the concrete.

I asked myself, How do we live in a world that allows such a thing to happen?

12.8 children in the Philippines lives in poverty. 2.2 million are forced into labor. 6 million are malnourished. And about 100,000 children are forced to become sex slaves. These children face not only income poverty but disturbingly includes deprivation from food, shelter, health, education, water, sanitation facilities, electricity and information.

To see a photo of a child suffering causes one to feel sympathy, but you are removed from an image – it’s happening somewhere else. To see a child suffer in person inspires one to create a world where children don’t have to face such an existence.

Every year, we travel to the Philippines and we provide education and resources that improves the health and academics of children living in poverty throughout the rural areas of the Philippines, where 9.2 million of the 12.8 million children living in poverty can be found. Through The Bridge Program, children learn the importance of proper hygiene, water purification, and other ways to improve their health. We teach performing arts including breakdancing, hip-hop, modern dance, poetry, and music. We provide much needed supplies and equipment. Since 2009, Soulciety has donated 100 fully-functioning computers, 14,000 books, 13,000 hygiene supplies, 8000 school materials, 1500 pairs of shoes, and numerous boxes of medicine. In the past few years, this program has reached about 15,000 children throughout the Philippines.

Later today, 9 mentors from the Bay Area and New York will be traveling to the Philippines for 3 weeks to provide aid and education to children in impoverished rural communities of Batangas, Negros, Bohol, and Pampanga.

Follow us on our journey beginning January 18. We will be blogging our visits to the villages and schools, performances, health & creative arts workshops, cultural adventures, our impact with the children and their impact on us.

For more information, check out www.soulciety.org/the-bridge

~ Ron Cariño, Executive Director of Soulciety