About "Caring Hands"...
The Caring Hands Project, in cooperation with
Catholic Relief Services,
aims to improve the lives of the children, the adults
and the animals that live in the village of San Roque in the Bicol
Region of the Philippines. Bicol, in the southeast corner of the
island of Luzon, is one of the poorest areas in the Philippines.
Many families attempt to survive on earnings of less than a dollar
a day. Most of the people who are Caring Hands beneficiaries
attempt to earn a living scavenging for coconuts and wild honey on
government-owned property on the slopes of Mount Bulusan, an
active volcano. At best, it is a precarious living.
Caring Hands is not a welfare program. The project is designed
to help people help themselves.
Catholic Relief Services provides
Caring Hands with the experienced local contacts who manage the
program. These managers are successful at community organizing and
leadership training. The managers work directly with the
beneficiary families and provide the necessary technical and
practical advice to enable them to implement the project.
The project focuses on swine raising and vegetable gardening.
These activities are often practiced in Bicol but are beyond the
reach of the poorest of the poor. Caring Hands helps the
beneficiary families get a start on gardening and raising piglets.
We work with families who would not otherwise be able to afford to
start a garden or raise a pig.
Vitamins found in garden produce and the protein provided by
pork products help the beneficiaries improve their diet.
Malnutrition along with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases
are endemic in San Roque. The Caring Hands project attacks the
root cause of these health problems-poverty. Even small
improvements in a families income and diet have been beneficial to
children’s health.
Caring Hands seeks to improve the lot of stray animals who roam the village of San Roque as well as stray
animals in the United States. This is done through vaccinations
against rabies and other infectious diseases. Animals can be put
up for local adoption after they have been cleared of disease.
The Caring Hands project is for many people in San Roque the
only chance they will have at a better life.
