Community Service by HOPIA

We are part of a local community in the city of Pasay in Philippines. Since last year, we started organizing events for the feast of our patron saint, Our Lady of Fatima, to provide entertainment and create a positive atmosphere within the community.

How we fund the expenses:

* Send solicitation letters to the entire neighborhood for financial support.

* Reach out to our local politicians to provide trophies, crowns and other prizes.

However, we are still not getting enough from our community since it is relatively small. Also, we do not want to make it a habit to reach out to local politicians, as we feel like we are indebted to them in so many ways and we do not want the next generation of organizers to feel the same way. We do not want us and the next batch after us to feel obliged to support them just because they helped us, as that may not be how everyone in our organization feels.

And so we decided to reach out to people from outside our community. We think it will be better to reach out to those who will be willing to help us without expecting anything in return. And as our organization grew bigger and more of our community's youth gain interest in joining and participating in the activities, we have decided to not focus on celebrating our feast alone (which happens October every year), but to come up with activities that will be beneficial for the entire community as well.

Goal

Our community (Barangay 14 Zone 1) can be considered as a drug infested area. As people living here, we do not want our kids to grow up in this kind of environment and at the same time, we do not want the teenagers in this community to be involved in such illegal activities. To do that, we've decided to come up with other projects that will be beneficial for them.

Target Projects

* Summer camp for teenagers in March-April.

* Street cleaning drive especially in June-July.

* Continue the event we have started for the feast of Fatima. (October)

* Halloween activities for young kids. (Trick or treating/Costume contests) (November)

* Gift-giving for the elderly. (December)

* Workshops and outreach programs to promote awareness, especially with regards to teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.

We are hoping to create year-round activities to keep the youth busy with something productive, instead of letting them engage in activities that are not beneficial to them and can only harm them or even their families.

And so we are hoping for your support through this fundraising campaign. Any amount you are willing to share will be a huge help to us, our community and of course, our youth and the elderly. Thank you and have a great day!

2018 Events