Mothers weeping are a common scene nowadays as dengue fever is taking the lives of children living in Philippine provinces. These are infants, toddlers – kids mostly below the age of 10.

While a bullet-and-blood-filled-hostage-drama is taking place in Manila, a record high of 40,000 cases of Dengue (48% higher in 2009) continues to rise killing children in ill-equipped hospitals and health centers in both urban and rural areas.

When will we start saving lives?

Reducing child mortality globally is one among the Millenium Development Goals. Accessible and efficient healthcare services are keys to the solution. The World Health Organization needs international support in order for them to provide what is necessary to start saving lives. And so we need to act now.

Arms Down to end War. Hands up to give Healthcare.

To give chance to lives, instead of losing them in war and nuclear destruction, the Arms Down Philippines campaign is set to raise 1 million signatures (50 million worldwide) to petition the UN to cut military spending and hand it over to development projects here in the Philippines – healthcare included.

Internationally, Arms Down.net brings together the religions for peace to work out a signature campaign project. Signatures from people of different races and places all over the globe are meant to ask all governments to make an official pledge to cut their military budgets by 10%. This will then be re-allocated to funds toward the millennium development goals.

If we do not want to see another baby dying of Dengue, if we do not want another helpless mother losing her child to a deadly mosquito bite, then take your stand to save lives!

Join Arms Down Philippines signature campaign!

Climate Change in the Philippines

Following the recent news about the height of damage caused by typhoon Ondoy last September, Al Gore explains that our country is not being spared from the havoc of sudden and harsh changes in weather. And no barely a few months after Ondoy, we areexperiencing the summer heat at such high levels causing drought and damage to major crops. It has also raised alarms as this temperature is adversely affecting bodily health as well in the form of dehydration, heat stroke, etc. With this, Al Gore has presented his popular video about climate change entitled, “The Inconvenient Truth”. It showed how the earth’s atmosphere, land, and water forms are steadily deteriorating, and moving to alarming levels that can ultimately hinder normal existence.

The Objective of the Talks

As he travels the world, Al Gore signals to the leaders in the ongoing climate talks to manage the tangled thickets of parliamentary process, which could be stalling the ultimate goal of addressing the problem of climate change.  Gore organized in 1992 an “alliance” of legislators all over the world to take up the issue of climate change. The climate change talks in Germany, for example,  tackles effectively the objective of cutting by half the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere by 2050 and clip the huge gap in the global carbon budget. Science has indicated that there is around 200 Gigatonnes (Gt) of GHGs in the atmosphere today, that nations must address the so-called Gigatonne gap through substantial commitments or pledges for carbon reduction especially by industrialized nations identified under Annex 1 of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Climate Project

Gore is progressively working on his “The Climate Project” to globally address the issues, solutions, and preventive actions on climate change.

If you want to know more details of Al Gore’s ‘The Climate Project’ and take part in this global movement, visit the site here, and register.

Together, let’s create a better earth.

Efren, or “Kuya Ef” is the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. In his character, the whole world has seen that even the poor can make a huge difference in society. Efren is one of the many Filipino youths who belonged to a family with difficult economic circumstances. Who would have thought that he would become one of the founders of the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC), the creator of the “Kariton Klasrum”

Kariton Klasrum by the Dynamic Teen Company

The “Kariton Klasrum” is an alternative means to educate poor children in slums about basic hygiene and values formation. The ‘Kariton’ is literally a wooden push cart that strolls around the slums to cater to children of the poor. It is loaded with books, pens and paper, and other school materials that aid in teaching unschooled and labor-exploited youths. The project has also reached out to give first-aid treatments and feeding programs to these children to complete its core mission of: K4 – Kariton, Klasrum, Klinik at Kantin. Because of the “Kariton Klasrum”, both younger and teen-aged youths from the slum recognized their dignity as any child with human rights.

Anyone of us can turn a hopeless child into a promising youth of the future.
Here’s how you can help push the Kariton Klasrum.

DTC was founded in August 1997 with just one push cart launched in Cavite by four teen-agers of Cavite National High School. Currently, President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the Department of Education to look into the “Kariton Klasrum” model as an alternative to conventional teaching.

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The Black Pencil Project is supporting Step Juan: A Walk for Children with Cancer. Step Juan believes in the dream of one man, Tomas Leonor to raise funds for cancer-inflicted children of the Cancer Warriors Foundation. The walking journey will send participants to travel without vehicle from North to South – Pagudpod (North Luzon) to Sorsogon (South Luzon). Ample stops will be given for food and rest only.

Edwin Karganilla, the co-founder of the Black Pencil Project promises to donate ten (10) pencils for every kilometre covered by the walk. These will in turn, be given to the preferred beneficiary of Leonor.

The walk for a cause has begun since January 11, 2010. The Black Pencil Project is looking at a figure of 12, 940 pencils to give away by the end of Step Juan.  The mission is not just to provide pencils, but to heal the wounds of a child with cancer by giving him a chance to live a normal childhood.

How is this possible? It starts with “step one” – support the cause.

Here’s how you can help