Malnutrition in the Philippines is a serious issue. According to UNICEF, “Every day, 95 children die from malnutrition. Twenty-seven out of 1,000 do not get past their fifth birthday. A third of are stunted, or short for their age. Stunting after 2 years of age can be permanent, irreversible and fatal.”

The agricultural and fisheries sector of the population, are the hardest hit families, due to the low and uncertain incomes of these laborers. The Wild Orchid Foundation has witnessed this firsthand and our very scholarship students have experienced hunger and it’s repercussions, throughout their lives. That is why our feeding programs are vital to the neighborhoods we serve. Our scholarship grantees prepare the meals, and deliver them to schools with the rest of our Philippine management team.

We were able to add a new school,

Tapal Elementary School to our feeding program roster. We selected Tapal because it is the most under resourced school in its region. We were happy to see however, that it was very clean which makes a world of difference in practicing health and wellness.

Wild Orchid was thrilled to meet the enthusiastic and happy students, the faculty and principal. Because of the funding from our donors, we were able to provide a healthy meal for each student. If you wish to donate to this project you may donate on our payment portal. You can also send a check to the Los Angeles headquarters, if that is more convenient.

Thanks to Joey Solano and his mother, Dr. Generosa, Wild Orchid Foundation was connected with the wonderful young ladies at the girls’ home for orphans, under the care of gentle sisters. Wild Orchid presented gifts from donors: school materials, literature books, chess boards with pieces and tsinelas (flip flops). We had the very special time with the girls and teach them yoga and chess. We were privileged to have an extensive dance performance from all of the skilled dancers.

We are pleased to be in touch and make these meaningful connections and know how all the students are progressing at school. There are close to 35 girls living as one united family. They are studious and keep their home in order. They have a few pet dogs, one older and now a new puppy, and attend school in close walking distance.

We are proud to be a part of their academic trajectory and their pursuit of excellence, With the absence of one’s own biological family, one is driven to realize the value of work and education from an early age. It is a blessing for them all to live in a safe, protected and nurturing environment.

Thank you to the sisters and young women for hosting us and experiencing your warm abode of talented youngsters filled with wonder and vitality. Wild Orchid Foundation looks forward to accompanying you in your growth and watching all that you will achieve in your bright and promising futures. Mabuhay!

The Mariano Mercado Scholars we’re thrilled to spend joyful festivity with our friends at Missionaries of the Poor, a home for displaced elderly and special needs residents. Many of the residents share backgrounds of abandonment and some have been found displaced by natural disasters such as in Tacloban, and found wandering alone.

The facility is managed by Brother Cris Ortega and a small staff. The Wild Orchid Team brought bags of rice, adult diapers, medical supplies, a washing machine and of course Christmas spirit and lots of cheer. There was much singing, laughter and merriment. Many of the residents do not have family or do not have visiting family.

Our scholarship students and management team were so happy to spend this cherished time together, with gifts and joyous celebration. The Christmas Spirit brought love and kinship to the home and it was a gift for us all to share this joyous time. We are in touch with our friends regularly, who rely on community support as many are without family support.

This residence is located in Talisay, Cebu and if you wish to assist them, please consider to donate through our payment portal, indicating that you wish to help our residents in Talisay. 100% of monetary donations go directly to the cause, and not to administrative expenses because the extra costs are covered by Wild Orchid Founders. You are directly helping someone in need. If you know anyone who is near Talisay, we are putting together a roster of patrons who can donate and deliver amenities on an appointment basis. Thank you for your generous hearts.

The Wild Orchid Foundation US Team was honored and delighted to visit the homes of each of our scholarship grantees. We were incredibly happy to meet their families and experience a « slice » of their daily lives. It was a lengthy trek and far off the beaten path, to arrive at everyone’s individual domain.

It certainly brought to light, all that is fully required to travel to and from school. Also, we are greatly impacted to comprehend the obstacles they face each day; and also consider, should there be heavy rains or floods. One of our scholars, felt that he would leave our program due to his motorcycle breaking down. Thanks to his sponsor Lucjan Chowaniec, he was able to afford a bike replacement and thanks to this support, continues on with his studies.

It is with ultimate satisfaction to see that our scholarship funding is making education a reality for The Mariano Mercado Scholarship Recipients. Our students live in remote countryside. They live off the land and rely on their harvests to sustain their living. They tend to farm life and raise cows, chickens, roosters and the Filipino sacred water buffalo, the carabao.

One of Wild Orchid’s ongoing projects is to assist local birthing centers upgrade their equipment and services, insuring pre and post natal care to mothers and infants. Many birth centers are under resourced, for a lack of funding and often mothers cannot afford to pay for adequate healthcare. Many live in remote regions, where there is no access to care. Mothers and babies often die during childbirth due to a scarcity of proper services, and capable birthing attendants.

Problems that arise are anemia, infection, obstructive births, hemorrhaging, hypertension disorders, vitamin deficiency and other conditions and complications. The Wild Orchid Foundation provides supplies to local birthing attendants, to improve birthing facilities, by empowering both, the team and also empower mothers and babies, through education, access to supplies and services (Insert pictures C & D)

This is one of our visitations, in which The Mariano Mercado Scholarship Grantees have delivered and set up gifts, made possible by our donors. Supplies gifted were extremely needed , as centers were operating without functioning items, or without essential items in order to facilitate ideal care. Items provided included: refrigerators, to store medicines and vaccines; stethoscopes and scales. 200 onesies were donated by Amanda Griffin Jacob in commemoration of her grandmother, Nyora Mandy Corrine.
(Insert Pictures E & F)

Together, working with community, we can gradually set goals, and carry them out to improve the quality of care in our barangay families from the beginning stages. Daghan salamat to our supporters who invest in necessary health benefits, to insure a future of longevity, promise and hope for families. Mabuhay!

While over 75% of Filipino prisoners are detainees awaiting trial, and not convicted prisoners; jails are largely overpopulated. There is a great scarcity of food and inadequate access to hygiene. There is prevalent sickness and death is common. The Wild Orchid Foundation Team is committed to embracing this marginalized and under represented members of community, to show them global care and support throughout their suffering.

Our kitchen provided meals and thanks to our benefactors, we brought sanitary napkins, underwear, new designer vintage T-Shirts donated by The Rossetto Family; soap, shampoo and toothpaste, chessboards and books. Toothbrushes are not allowed in prison. We visited both the men and women’s dorms and conducted educational activities with youth detainees.

During our visitations, prisoners repeatedly tell us that for them, “the little things are big.” We visit each dorm which holds 80-100 people seated, where they sleep crowded, (often piled on top of eachother). One dorm presented us with a festive Impromptu dance performance. Wild Orchid founder, Coco Barán was previously invited to be a judge their annual talent show.

There is so much sadness and longing to be reunited with family. Many detainees wait up to 5 plus years to have a trial. Tragically, they may waste years of their lives only to be found innocent. Detainees and inmates are kept in jail because they cannot afford to pay bail, which can start at 5,028 Philippine pesos equaling 100 USD.

We are convicted to alleviate this societal malaise and work to assist to our fullest capacity to preserve dignity for inmates and detainees. It is a complicated and dangerous social issue in a web of corruption. In June of 2019, the death toll reported for extrajudicial vigilante killings was at 5,526 under the current regime.

In the words of Fr. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries: “we have stood in the right place, with the poor, the powerless, and the voiceless. We have stood with those whose dignity has been denied. We have stood with the easily despised and readily left out. We continue to stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. And we stand with the disposable, so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. We will continue to stand at the margins as we always have – this is and will continue to be our daily work.”

Feeding and Classroom Support

One of our most successful endeavors was carried out at Canal Elementary School. This is one of the schools on our Feeding Program and Classroom Support roster. Located in a rural mountainous in Southern Philippines, many of the students come to school hungry because they don’t always have food available at home. Their families do not have refrigerators. Most do not have running water or electricity.

Because of our generous donors, Wild Orchid was able to give them a supply of rice with rice cooker plus a refrigerator to have healthy meals on hand for undernourished students, especially the most vulnerable and emaciated ones.

Wild Orchid presented the classroom supplies donated by schools in the US. We brought meals to distribute on our periodic visitation. Malnutrition makes it impossible to learn to the best of their ability. While most students walk hours to school and back home, they are also prevented from their academic routine when the rains flood the road or when it is blocked by construction to build a mandated quarry.

This project was carried out by The Wild Orchid Mariano Mercado Scholarship Students and our Philippine managemt staff. Canal Elementary and director, faculty and staff are always so gracious and appreciative of our benefactors enabling them to aspire high to access health, education and wellbeing.

Wild Orchid also provided Canal with a quantity of books and chessboards for literacy and further enrichment. We welcome partnerships with able schools and educators who wish to donate materials and funds to our educational projects for these children, who live without the basic resources required to thrive and build a promising, sustainable future.

Wild Orchid’s project to inaugurate a library for Upland Elementary School was finally realized. Over a thousand books (and counting) were donated from schools in the United States, which were shipped over. This was a major dream in manifest for the faculty and students, to have a school library.

It was dedicated to Catalina Lucero, fondly remembered as “Nyora” (Señora) Taling to those who loved her. She is the grandmother of Wild Orchid’s founder and a matriarch of the city of Carcar, of which her own father, Mariano Mercado was the mayor. Nyora Taling is the inspiration of The Wild Orchid Foundation, as she was an active philanthropist during her life and sent many people to school. One beneficiary, Karen Oamilda is a teacher at this school. The inauguration of The Nyora Taling Library stands of a testimony of community building through the generosity of global citizens, although oceans away, uniting to build community and transform lives. The legacy of one bountiful benefactress can live on, to offer literacy and enrichment for generations to come.

The Wild Orchid Foundation is always accepting new or gentle used books for future community libraries. Wild Orchid has opened libraries for numerous others schools but Upland Elementary was the first. The gift of literacy goes unsurpassed.

The Wild Orchid Foundation had the utmost privilege and pleasure to hold our first summer camp in our scholarship program, for college students. We currently have 8 scholar grantees in our program. They are vocational training students at Carcar City College in Cebu. Our summer camp is a full 2 week immersion experience, filled with workshops and activities to enrich recipients on a panoramic scale.

Our agenda included: mentorship workshops of motivation and strategizing. We conduct talks on improving our communities, and career development. We held socials of karaoke, celebratory meals and recreational excursions. Wild Orchid Management had the honor to trek to the remote countryside, and visited each scholar’s home and families.

Classes that were offered pertained to one’s pursued, field of study, as well as enrichment classes: yoga, chess and dance. We had one on one sessions of mentorship and career forecasting. Also, paramount of utmost value to our endeavors is our community service. We embarked on many projects to uplift and assist vulnerable community members such as visiting and delivering needed amenities and meals to under resourced schools.

We also visited the detention center to feed and to bring cheer to detainees, many of which are teenagers, detained indefinitely. We also went to the local prison to bring necessities to confined women and men and most importantly to show them love and accompany them in their incarceration.

The Mariano Mercado Scholars are the pride of The Wild Orchid Foundation. They know what it is to be hungry and do without. They are not strangers to tragedy and death by curable ailments. They are the future ambassadors and leaders in our global plight against circumstantial poverty and social malaise.

After introduction speech by Wild Orchid Founder, Coco Barán; Guest Artists, Guru Alvin of Pamanakali and Toni Pasion of A Stage of Our Own, performed cultural dance and martial arts demonstrations, which culminated in interactive activities with The Turning Point Elementary students.

Turning Point Elementary School held a book drive early on in the school year for Wild Orchid. Families and friends donated over 1000 books so that Filipino students could have libraries at their schools. TPS also donated funds to our educational programs in impoverished rural Filipino regions. 100% of all monetary donations always go directly to the cause and not to administrative expenses because Wild Orchid founders cover costs.

This event was held in gratitude, promoting social awareness and multicultural appreciation amongst students. The Wild Orchid Foundation is delighted to receive gently used elementary level reading books so under resourced classrooms can develop literacy and foster and love of reading.

https://www.pamanakali.com/
https://astageofourown.com/
https://www.turningpointschool.org/