On Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th of April parents and their children from barangay Lazareto could apply for the scholarship program. Right from the start of Tuesday morning it was very busy and some mothers had to wait the whole day before they could fill in the registration papers.
Lazareto is one of the poorest neighbourhoods (barangay) in Calapan. Most people live well below the poverty threshold. A monthly income of less than € 50,- per family is no exception. With an average of nine family members people can daily spend less than 25 eurocents per person. These families in particular benefit from the scholarship program. Poverty is passed from generation to generation. A lot of people were not able to fill in the registration papers themselves, because both the mother and the child cannot read or write. Education can help these children to escape from poverty by increasing the opportunity of getting a (better) job. We hope we will be able to help a lot of these children.