Kalinga Foundation

Volunteers run the Kalinga Foundation and dedicate themselves to deprived (street)children in the Philippines. The Kalinga projects are relatively small scale ones. Moreover, all our volunteers feel very strongly about these projects and the children involved.

The Kalinga Foundation offers help on a structural basis. Help that may break the vicious circle of poverty for these children. They are offered a grip with which, at the end of the day, they can claim the place in society they are entitled to. Projects that serve as a ‘painkiller’ and have only a short-term effect do not lead to structural changes, but then they do not fit within the goals of Kalinga. The ability to live and do things independently is our “core business”.

In our projects we focus specially on the dwellers around the Payatas garbage dump on the outskirts of Manilla. Over 30,000 people live on this huge heap of garbage. They earn money by gathering and separating garbage; one picks cans, another picks plastic or cardboard. Children too, do this from an early age.

The Payatas people are never out of work. As soon as a garbage truck arrives, there’s work to do and trucks keep coming all day long. However, life on Payatas is hard and dangerous and for most of the children there’s no chance of another and a better future. The Kalinga Foundation tries to change this.