Five King’s College London students flew to Manilla, Republic of the Philippines, on the 20 March to set up two enterprise projects with school leavers currently living in poverty on rubbish dumps.
The King’s SIFE team include undergraduate students Claire Matthews (Medicine), Sara Alom-Ruiz (Medicine), Yidan Chen (War Studies), Jessica Cheong, (School of Biomedical and Health Sciences) and Devvrat Todi (Mechanical Engineering). Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is a global non-profit organization active in more than 40 countries and was first set up at King’s in January 2008.
Over 10 days the team’s ‘Charitable Philippines Project’ will set up and oversee two sustainable business ideas, Beading a difference and Seeds of Hope. The first project will train people to make jewellery to sell online and uses recycled goods collected from local businesses. The second project teaches gardening skills and aims to establish gardens growing fruit and vegetable to sell and distribute to primary schools.
The team chose to set up projects within the community of people who live and work on the rubbish dumps for a number of reasons; they currently have no charitable support, people live on less than 40 pence a day and 60 children die each year as a result of being run over by the dumper trucks. The SIFE team initially aim to work with 100 people.
Michael Utterson, King’s SIFE Team Co-President and second year Medical student has coordinated efforts in the UK. He explains: ‘We chose Beading a difference as the Filipinos who will be running it would be otherwise scavenging rubbish from the dumps. They will be able to make jewellery, with the items they cannot sell for scrap, and the project will teach them new skills. We will offer a safer and more sustainable source of recyclable materials from hotels for people to use.’
‘We chose to base Seeds of Hope on fruit and vegetables as malnutrition is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the community we're working in. The multitude of food outlets means there is the biggest possible market for any product. We aim to improve the diet of the people in the community.’
Claire Matthews, King’s SIFE Team Co-President and a first year Medical student is the project leader for the Philippines project. Whilst at school she was involved with the Philippines Community Fund (PCF) which fundraised to build the first school based in the community, the school leavers from which she will be working with on the SIFE projects.
Before she left for the Philippines Claire said, ‘I can't wait to fly out to the Philippines to meet the people whose lives the projects will transform. Every new challenge is a learning experience and starting SIFE up at King's has certainly seemed like Everest at times! But when I look back at how much we've achieved since January I can't believe it myself.’
The team will also be attending a dinner with King’s Alumni hosted by the British Ambassador in Manila.
Fundraising effort
The team raised money for the trip in a variety of different ways over the past three months. Hollywood meets Bollywood, an evening of dance and entertainment, held at Tutu’s at the Strand Campus at the end of February, featured performances by the KCLSU Dance Society. The event raised £2,300 for the trip. They have also each contributed £500 towards the trip.
The team recently made the national semi-finals of the 2008 SIFE UK National Competition which will take place in April. Claire has also been short listed for the national ‘Young Achievers Award’ for her volunteering and community work.
Source: By King's College London
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