Category Archives: Philippines

Unbound's office building in Antipolo, Philippines.
Community, Philippines
Sep 30 2016

Community blessings for Unbound’s Antipolo office

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Unbound’s office building in Antipolo, Philippines.
A cake designed to look like the Unbound Antipolo office building.

As we reported in 2015, our program in Antipolo, Philippines, built a new office space and community center. The building project was a community effort, with fathers of sponsored children employed as construction workers, along with others from the local community, and several Antipolo alumni lent their expertise to the project.

The Unbound community in Antipolo recently held a celebration to bless the new building. Father Richard Magararu officiated the blessing, and several members from the community also offered their own prayers in Tagalog, the language spoken by many Filipinos.

Here are their prayers, along with an English translation.

Read the prayers

Ramil goes out each day with other fishermen to support his family.
Economic Self-Sufficiency, Philippines, Sponsor a child, Unbound
Sep 26 2016

‘I will do everything to be a good father’

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Ramil, Domnick and Anita in front of their home in the Philippines.

Ramil, Domnick and Anita in front of their home in the Philippines.


Ramil wakes up at 4:30 every morning and ventures out on the sea to catch fish. Twice a day he heads out on the waters surrounding the Philippines for one reason: to support his family.

The father of seven children, including 10-year-old Romnick who is sponsored through Unbound, Ramil sees his job as a fisherman as the best way to provide for his family. After his first round of fishing for the day, his wife, Anita, sells the fish in the market while Ramil goes back out to bring in another catch.

Ramil has been doing this for 20 years.

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John is a father of eight in Uganda. His daughter Christine is sponsored through Unbound. To support his family, he took loans from the Unbound parents group he participates in to open up his own store.
Bolivia, Economic Self-Sufficiency, Guatemala, India, Philippines, Sponsor a child, Sponsor an aging friend, Uganda, Unbound
Sep 5 2016

Hard-working parents — photo essay

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Charito is the mother of two sponsored children in the Philippines. She is part of an initiative that uses water hyacinth (water lily), which grows in abundance near her community, to create a plant-based leather substitute. They use it to create a variety of products, such as shoes, bags, folders and backpacks. Charito is in charge of drying and cleaning the plants after they have been harvested by scraping off extra fibers, which she is doing in the photo above.

Through supports groups and livelihood programs, Unbound supports the hard-working parents of sponsored children around the world to help them develop their natural talents, so they can create sustainable sources of income to support their families and work their way out of poverty.

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Social worker Anibal Perez (right) visits with Angelica and Emerson, the mother and brother of sponsored child Ada in Guatemala.
Education, Guatemala, Honduras, Philippines, Sponsor a child, Unbound
Aug 17 2016

From sponsored members to staff members

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Social worker Anibal Perez (right) visits with Angelica and Emerson, the mother and brother of sponsored child Ada in Guatemala.

Social worker Anibal Perez (right) visits with Angelica and Emerson, the mother and brother of sponsored child Ada in Guatemala. As a student, Anibal was sponsored and had a scholarship through Unbound. Because he comes from similar circumstances as the families in the program, he says, “I understand their struggle. …”


Former sponsored child and scholarship recipient Anibal Perez remembers how important support from the Unbound staff was growing up.

Now, in his role as a social worker with Unbound in Guatemala, Anibal works with 322 children and their families to support them and be part of their lives.

“I understand their struggle and can be sort of a role model for them,” he said.

Anibal credits his family, his sponsors (Dennis and Mary in Illinois) and the Unbound staff for making it possible for him to graduate from high school.

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Reynald heads down the boulevard in Dipolog city, seeking the best spot to set up for the day.
Economic Self-Sufficiency, Philippines, Sponsor a child, Unbound
Jul 15 2016

Success with a cherry on top

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Regine (center) with her parents, Judith (left) and Reynald (right), who run an ice cream business. They prepare ice cream each day in a small area of their home in the Philippines and sell it in the community.
Judith (left) and Reynald (right) make their morning batch of ice cream — strawberry and mango!
This Sunday is National Ice Cream Day, and we’re celebrating by honoring an Unbound family who makes their living from ice cream! If you don’t already have a bowl of your favorite cold treat ready to enjoy, you will definitely be craving one after reading this.

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Sponsored children in the southern Philippines play together. Unbound promotes peace and harmony in the region through activities with children and families.
Philippines, Sponsor a child, Sponsor an aging friend, Unbound
Jun 22 2016

Faith, friendship, gratitude and mercy

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Sponsored children in the southern Philippines play together. Unbound promotes peace and harmony in the region through activities with children and families.
Al Nhadzar, 14, from the Philippines

Before Al Nhadzar of the Philippines was sponsored at age 12, he hoped for a sponsor not only to help with his education, but to have a friend in another part of the world.

“It [the sponsorship] will be a help to me and my family, especially in my studies,” he said. “I will gain a friend from the other side of the world, which is a very important experience for me.”

Al Nhadzar, who goes by Al, found that friend in Patricia Lazzaro of New York.

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Randy is the primary caretaker for his five children while his wife works abroad. His three oldest girls are sponsored through Unbound.
Philippines, Sponsor a child, Unbound
Jun 10 2016

Randy’s story: Love covers distance

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Randy is the primary caretaker for his five children while his wife works abroad. His three oldest girls are sponsored through Unbound.

Randy is the primary caretaker for his five children while his wife works abroad. His three oldest girls are sponsored through Unbound.

This is the second in a series of four stories about fathers of children sponsored through Unbound. We’ll be posting these leading up to the celebration of Father’s Day on June 19. Click here to watch the companion video.
Read Randy’s story

The home of a person sponsored through Unbound.
awareness trips, Community, Philippines, Sponsor a child, Sponsor an aging friend, Unbound
Jun 1 2016

Through holy doors to graced encounters

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The home of a person sponsored through Unbound.

An Unbound sponsor stands just outside a bamboo door of a small dwelling in a village in the central Philippines. She has traveled thousands of miles to be there after months of anticipation. Her sponsored child and his parents wait just inside the small house, smiling their welcome.

Feeling excited and nervous, the sponsor steps through the door and into the home, somehow knowing that her world is about to be forever changed.

On Dec. 8, Pope Francis stood outside an ancient set of doors in St. Peter’s Basilica, surrounded by hundreds of people. Performing a ritual dating back to the 14th century, the pope solemnly pushed the ornate doors open and walked through, officially inaugurating the Holy Year of Mercy.

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Tristan John Cabrera, communications liaison for Unbound in the Philippines, visits the Cagsawa Ruins near Mt. Mayon, Philippines.
Philippines, Sponsor a child, Sponsor an aging friend, Unbound
May 18 2016

Stories of hope in the Philippines

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Tristan John Cabrera, communications liaison for Unbound in the Philippines, visits the Cagsawa Ruins near Mt. Mayon, Philippines.

Tristan John Cabrera, communications liaison for Unbound in the Philippines, visits the Cagsawa Ruins near Mt. Mayon, Philippines.

By Tristan John Cabrera, communications liaison in the Philippines

Unbound in the Philippines has five offices and more than 50,000 sponsored members, including children, youth and elders. As communications liaison for the Philippines, I cover stories from the region through text, photos, audio and video. To be able to effectively cover the whole region, a correspondent network was created. It’s composed of sponsored students and Unbound scholarship holders who have an interest in writing and photography. They receive basic training in journalism and photography, and I encourage them to submit story ideas that could inspire the Unbound community.

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