In Australia's diverse charity sector, there are thousands of fantastic stories about the impact charities have on their communities.
We recently spoke with registered charity the Amazing Grace Foundation about its work, goals and how the charity protects vulnerable children in the Philippines.
What does your charity do?
Amazing Grace Foundation provides a feeding outreach program to underprivileged children living in very poor conditions in the Philippines. We have provided more than 6000 meals and counting.
We ensure this outreach mission is followed through and is not just a once-off.
We have also distributed hundreds of items of clothing and slippers to give these children the sense and feeling of getting their dignity back.
Thirty kilograms of used books were also donated to a public school in June 2018. At the start of this school year (June 2019), we are directly sponsoring 10 children to attend primary school. With this sponsorship, we will see that they are enrolled properly and will provide them with school uniforms, shoes, school supplies, school bag, 20 kilograms of rice (to help their family a little bit) and 1,000 Philippine Peso to go towards commuting to and from school.
There are so many other things that the foundation does that have a huge positive impact on others; for example, the small fruit and vegetable vendors from whom we source the food we use to feed the children.
What is the ultimate goal for your charity – what do you want to achieve?
Our initial goal was purely to be able to ‘give back’ to where I came from, as I knew how difficult life can be back home.
Since our launch in October 2017, up until May 2018, we were running fundraising events and raffle draws so we could achieve our goal of raising $5000 and kick start our mission. And that very first outreach finally happened in June 2018.
From then on, our ultimate goal turned into not just making sure that the feeding outreach program is followed through, but to make sure these children are given equal chance at life, these children are inspired to one day become an inspiration to others, to empower them and to let them know that they are not forgotten.
One goal is to one day be able to sponsor more kids so they can receive the education they need alongside our continued feeding outreach program. We do not dream to become a big charity; what we want to achieve is to reach more and more children and have a huge impact on their lives.
What is the most exciting development from your charity recently? (i.e. new projects, milestone celebrations etc.)
We celebrated our first anniversary in October 2018.
We introduced sponsorships for 10 children to attend primary school and the formation of a new committee (very important in an organisation).
How important is the support of donors and volunteers to your charity?
I cannot stress it enough – donors and volunteers are the backbone of this entire foundation. It is what completes it.
We can hold as many events, campaigns or raffle draws as we can, but without donors they are pointless, and without volunteers it is impossible to have a charity that operates properly.
Your charity operates in the Philippines – How does your charity safeguard and protect the vulnerable children you work with?
We have established a standard system when it comes to working in the Philippines.
All the volunteers have to fill in and sign a volunteer’s registration form, as well as provide a valid ID which is sighted by our head volunteer coordinator.
This is to ensure we have a record of the volunteer’s full name, address and contact details.
After registration, each member receives an induction on safeguarding. We have a Child Safeguarding and Rules for Keeping Children Safe Policy. This outlines what Amazing Grace Foundation’s rules and policies are, what we promise to do and what we will NOT do.
We put this together in plain and simple wording so volunteers can easily understand it.
If this policy is breached, a system of reporting incidents is to be followed. This system is aligned with, and respectful of, the process of the local government.
It is very important to us that everyone who becomes part of our operation understands their roles, responsibilities, behaviours and actions in and around children.
Find out more about the Amazing Grace Foundation via their social media channels:
Interested in sharing your charity’s story? Email us at charitychat@acnc.gov.au.