Why K.I.D.S. Foundation?
The Philippines is a hotbed of untapped intellectual potential. The average Filipino is generous, virtuous, faithful, industrious, and family-oriented. Language skills are high, with many Filipinos of all social classes having excellent English skills. Filipino education standards are incredibly high compared to the rest of Southeast Asia.
Yet despite these excellent ingredients, the Philippines still struggles to take its rightful place among developed nations. Income inequality is rampant due to high foreign debt, frequent natural disasters, poor infrastructure, and populational pressure. Unemployment and underemployment are common. Many children come from large families with single parents or single incomes. Families often struggle to make ends meet.
While Filipinos enjoy access to high-quality public education, many students from low-income families still struggle to afford school. While they don’t have to pay tuition, they must purchase uniforms, school supplies, and project supplies. Even transportation to and from school strains large families’ budgets.
To keep food on the table, many families regretfully forgo schooling despite the apparent qualifications of their bright and curious children. As a result, these promising potential scholars lose out on opportunities for high-skill jobs, income security, and upward mobility for the entire family.
It takes a relatively small amount of philanthropic assistance to open up access to education for these children, dramatically changing the lives of Filipino families that aspire to a better life. For less than the average Westerner’s daily coffee shop habit, a Filipino student could afford:
Transportation Costs
($30 per year)
- Daily commute via jeepney, tricycle, or bus fare to and from school
- Some students walk long distances if they can’t afford transport
School Supplies
($15 per year)
- Notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers
- Folders, binders, paper
- Coloring materials for projects (crayons, colored pencils, markers)
School Uniforms & Shoes
($25 per year)
- School uniforms (public schools require at least two sets)
- Black shoes (required for uniform compliance)
- PE (Physical Education) uniform is often a separate requirement
- Socks and essential undergarments for school
Project & Activity Costs
($10 per year)
- Contributions for school projects (materials for presentations, model-making, posters)
- Printing and photocopying fees (many students have limited access to home printers)
- Small fees for school events, science fairs, and competitions
Meals & Snacks at School
($10 per year)
- Some children attend school hungry if their families can’t afford breakfast or snacks
- A small daily allowance can help buy affordable meals from school canteens or furnish the child with snacks from home
Internet & Mobile Data for Homework
($5 per year)
- Some schoolwork requires internet access for research, projects, and online submissions
- Many students rely on prepaid mobile data since they don’t have home Wi-Fi
Total: $95 per year
Countless inhabitants of both the Eastern and Western world exhibit exemplary generosity. They are grateful for their good fortune and want to pass it on … but don’t know how their contributions, especially in smaller denominations, can make a tangible difference.
Real Impact You Can See
K.I.D.S. Foundation exists to bridge the gap between generous donors in the West and the East and the children for whom a small investment can yield outsized dividends in upliftment—for their families and their entire community.
Benefactors don’t just write checks and never hear from the foundation again. The Foundation enables the benefactors, within appropriate bounds, to have a personal connection with the beneficiaries of their generosity.
Grant recipients routinely send heartwarming Christmas cards and other tokens of appreciation to their benefactors, wherein they describe precisely how K.I.D.S. Foundation funding has impacted their lives and the gratitude and faith that buoys them to make the most of the opportunity.
Our challenging world offers few opportunities to make a big difference with a small investment—to see that difference, to put a name and face to it, and to watch the impact unfold in real-time.
Feedback from Other Benefactors
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K.I.D.S. Foundation emerged from a collaboration between European and Filipino entrepreneurs who brought innovation to the Filipino staffing industry, providing offshore and maritime staffing for multinational corporations. Thanks to the efforts of these entrepreneurs, Filipino labor has become the backbone of some of the largest companies in the world.
Through involvement with the communities that formed their labor pool, these entrepreneurs realized that income inequality resulted in severe educational gaps, starting at the youngest ages.
Countless young people from lower-income backgrounds applied for jobs. Despite their apparent aptitude, intelligence, and character, they lacked the basic skills learned in school that would have qualified them for a middle-class workforce. As a result, they remained stranded in poverty due to the endemic income inequality in the Philippines.
While the Philippines had high-quality education, many low-income Filipino families could not afford the minor ancillary expenses — supplies, transportation, uniforms, etc. — it would take for their children to attend school. As a result, promising young pupils dropped out of school and perpetuated cycles of poverty.
The founders conceived of K.I.D.S. Foundation as a mechanism to create a significant impact with relatively small investments. For as little as $100 a year, a pupil could afford the supplies, materials, and transportation needed to attend school, resulting in a quantum leap of opportunity for the students to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
The foundation partnered with Cayetano Arellano High School, one of Manila’s most prominent and best high schools. Funds raised by the foundation go directly to the student’s bank account, relieving financial pressure on the family and enabling the student to attend Arellano High School without additional economic pressure. Leftover funds empower the family to save, invest in other children, and afford personal pleasures that improve overall morale and quality of life.
To date, K.I.D.S. Foundation has helped over 700 students afford to attend Arellano. Our success has attracted notice across the Filipino educational ecosystem, and numerous other schools have volunteered to partner with the foundation to help even more students.
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