THE VISION

Wow – this is the part that really gets me going and gets me excited. What do I see happening with our project? As it says on our website at http://www.projectpinkbutterfly.org:

Vision = Vivid Mental Image

And I can see this clearly which is why I know that it will happen. If you are a believer in the LOA then you know what I mean. I plan to start by opening the first street shelter in Manila by the end of January 2010.

That shelter can be any type of building that will give us the ability to accomplish several things. 1) set up a kitchen and dining area where kids can come in from the streets to eat 2) have bathroom facilities so the kids can take care of their basic hygiene needs 3) have room for as many children to sleep as possible.

The shelters will be open and accessible to the children 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There are so many children that this is necessary. We will have trained social workers to work with the kids and help us “triage” the kids for the next stage.

The next evolution with the project is the rural farms/communities. I plan to purchase properties in rural areas (which is very inexpensive) and create farms that serve several purposes. First and foremost we will build housing for the kids on the land. I envision about 100 kids per farm. 5 housing facilities will give us 20 kids in each facility. With four sets of house parents each handling 5 kids.

There is a tremendous amount of poverty in the Philippines and some families just need a hand up. That is where our house parents will come from. The men will help us on the farm also. Kids of course will have chores around the farm.

We will build class rooms on the farms for the kids to attend school. Usually very few children in the Philippines are able to attend school. In the future we will look at being able to take the rural kids from outside our  farm communities into the schools also so that they can receive an education.

Rice, fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish and poultry are commonly grown on the lush farm land in the Philippines. This will not only sustain our rural farm communities but will supply our shelters in the city. I even see working with mom and pop restaurants in the cities providing them with greatly discounted produce and fruits in exchange for putting a Pink Butterfly sticker in their window. The kids in the streets will know that any business displaying a Pink Butterfly sticker is safe to go and ask for a bowl of rice or vegetables. We will also work towards being able to supply extra food to the other organizations that have shelters and homes for the kids there.

I see us finding ways to open businesses that will not only provide us with money but will also provide us with the ability to train and educate the kids with skills they can use in the real world. When they reach working age they can work in the businesses. The businesses will also provide funding for a scholarship program for the kids to attend colleges and universities. Hopefully some of them will graduate and want to come back to work in our businesses to grow and expand them.

We will work with the local agencies and authorities on setting up adoption programs. This will give some of the kids the ability to be adopted into loving homes throughout the world. Finding the kids homes will be a big priority but they will not miss out on anything if they don’t get adopted.

Through Project Pink Butterfly our children will learn self-esteem, confidence, strong moral and spiritual values, social skills and being part of a community, work ethics, leadership, team building, family values, ethics and integrity. Most importantly they will be loved, nurtured, cherished and cared for.

We will set up volunteer vacation programs so that people from all walks of life can choose to spend their vacations in the cities and/or on the farms working with the kids and building “One” worldwide family. We will have events at the farms. Our first one is already scheduled for 2012 and is being handled by Shauna Antle.

One of the things that is so important for this to work is to get others involved on all kinds of levels. I want to make our website so fun that lots of folks will visit. There will be videos of the kids. Our own kids art gallery. Music, writings, drawings. There will be webcams set up in some of the shelters and at the farms so people can see what is happening with the kids and they can even chat with them if they want.  When we have sports activities and/or plays, musical activities, I will find away to broadcast those over the internet so people can participate.

There won’t be any borders or boundaries between you and the kids. We are one!

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