Project Managers Flemming and Elisabet Hansen

Cebu City, Philippines
Rise Above Foundation

Project No: P27
Project Managers: Flemming and Elisabet Hansen

Contact Info:
flemming@channel-of-hope.org
www.channel-of-hope.org

Since 2000, Flemming and Elisabet Hansen managed Channel of Hope Cebu, which in 2009 was incorporated as the Rise Above Foundation. Rise Above Foundation hosts volunteers from Scandinavia including student teachers, medical students, social work and behavior science students, and dental and dental hygiene students (as well as dentists), as well as students of midwifery. These volunteers do their internship in the Philippines, where they carry out their practicum at different schools and institutions as arranged by Rise Above Foundation.

This arrangement benefits street children and other underprivileged youth growing up in the slums. One such example is the free dental program sponsored by Rise Above Foundation, catering to families that scavenge for garbage to make a living, their estimated lifespan as low as 36 years of age. Their Essential Health Care package includes supplying to these unfortunates toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, de-worming tablets and lice treatment at a cost of less than $1 per year per child.

Rise Above Foundation also organizes free dental camps for these underprivileged families, as well as operates food programs, and supplies volunteer teachers for schools in the slums.

To donate to this Family Care Foundation Project, please note Project NAME and then click here.

Volunteer Education Program

Rise Above Foundation (RAF) hosts volunteers from Scandinavia including student teachers, medical students, social work and behavior science students, and dental and dental hygiene students (as well as dentists), as well as students of midwifery. These volunteers do their internship in the Philippines, where they carry out their practicum at different schools and institutions as arranged by Rise Above Foundation.

Rise Above Foundation is recognized by particular institutions in Scandinavia who apply the number of credits and hours put in by the volunteers toward their diplomas. To initiate these internships, among other things RAF requests the CV for each student and asks them to describe why they want to be in the Philippines. These responses are then organized and compiled and delivered to mayors and administrators of possible participating institutes.

This arrangement of placing the volunteers in needy situations for 3 – 6 months at a time directly benefits street children and other underprivileged youth growing up in the slums. The program has really caught on as many Scandinavian students look forward to an opportunity to help teach these needy children, while also immersing themselves in a foreign culture.

Cooking for the school children at the rubbish dump is part of the experience.

Dan, an IT man from Copenhagen, together with 2 girls who live on a garbage dump.

It serves two purposes:
1. It gives the poor people a helping hand, and the children a broader vision as it connects them with people from another continent and culture, giving the children hope of a better life, away from the slums.

2. The young men and women return to Europe as changed persons. Seeing the conditions that the poor live under -- malnourished children, people dying simply because they lack money to buy basic antibiotics, and so forth -- changes their lives and most of them go back with a desire to help in one form or another, either in trying to get sponsors for our work here, or sponsoring the education of a child, or helping the poor in their home countries.

Martin and Trine teaching children at the center: A class on the country of Denmark.

Christina, one of 50 Danish student teachers who came to Cebu.

Amongst its related programs, Rise Above Foundation supplies volunteer teachers to an Australian-based missionary organization whose sole aim is to help poor children get a future outside the slums, through helping them learn to read and write and prepare them for a full education.

Depending on their circumstances, the student teachers stay in the Philippines for anywhere from 3 weeks to a 3-6 month internship. For those who remain for the longer periods, we arrange for them to have a house for accommodations, a home away from home, instead of them living in a hotel.

Essential Health Care Program

Many children in the Philippines never brush their teeth simply because their parents cannot afford to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste, and also lack a sufficient knowledge of its importance.

Dental health is a serious problem in the Philippines, where an estimated 97% of six-year-old Filipino children suffer from dental decay, and a huge percentage of 6-12 year- olds typically have 4-5 rotten teeth in their mouth! (In fact it’s not unheard of where the children not only have disease in their gums, but in many cases the infection goes right through to the outside of the skin on their cheeks!)

The problems are so serious that an average of 15% of elementary school children (and up to 40% in some schools) are absent from school simply because of serious and debilitating toothaches.

Coupled with these statistics, the Philippines also consume the highest concentration of sugars, sodas, etc. of anywhere in the world. (Would you believe Cola first being ingested in baby bottles!?)

Rise Above Foundation (originally as Channel of Hope Cebu) therefore launched the “Essential Health Care” Program in elementary schools throughout the region whereby children (and teachers) are educated on dental health, and the children presented with their own toothbrushes and toothpaste, with daily brushing incorporated into the school program in order to instill proper dental hygiene habits in these kids, all of which is regularly monitored. Volunteer dentists visit schools and educate the children, the teachers and School Principals on the how’s and why’s of good oral healthcare (and later the children’s parents as well). The Essential Health Care package includes sufficient toothpaste for an entire year, a toothbrush, a bar of soap, and tablets for de-worming, as well as lice treatment. And all this for less than $1 per year per child.

Additionally, the children are educated on basics that most in western countries would take for granted, such as the need to wash their hands and clean their nails, etc. to avoid intestinal parasites. Children are also screened for lice and skin allergies as part of the process at the same time. (Research shows that 8 out of 10 Filipino children in the elementary school system have tapeworms, which compounds the problem of malnutrition.)

Such a simple thing as hand washing with soap has been calculated to save a million lives in developing countries, and particularly in areas where children and adults scavenge for garbage to make a living, where the estimated lifespan may otherwise be as low as 36 years of age!

Free Dental Programs

The simple act of thoroughly brushing teeth once a day, as conducted in elementary schools that are part of the Rise Above Foundation program, effectively improves tooth decay and deterioration by 50% amongst these kids – not to keep of keeping them in school and attentive to their classes, and not their pain. (If twice daily brushing could be instituted, statistics show that it would cut tooth decay significantly by a further 20%. The challenge here is the fact that the follow-up element, brushing after a second meal, would need to be conducted at the children’s homes.)

In this program, the toothbrushes are kept at the school so that this practice of daily brushing can be overseen and monitored. Whereas if the toothbrushes were to be returned home with the child, since the parents have no dental hygiene background, the practice would soon be lost. In any case, the goal here is to eventually build a habit so that the kids at school learn to brush their teeth as they grow up.

Someone viewing the program underway would see kids departing their classrooms as the recess bell rings, and first taking a few minutes to line up to brush their teeth. Many such schools previously had an enormous percentage of absenteeism due to children having toothaches and thus staying home.

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There are many ramifications of having bad teeth, not least of all in applying for a job. If say someone is trying to get a job in the food industry or in some form of public relations, if they have unsightly teeth they’re not going to qualify. Even those who check off having a history of “toothaches” will be suspect. In fact, you can’t even join the Army without a dental check as the Army doesn’t want recruits so occupied with toothaches that they can’t concentrate on the battlefield conditions.

In a given school district of 50,000 students, there may only be one dentist and a small staff who in theory is responsible for the dental needs of all 50,000 students!  (Meaning the chances are low a child would ever make it to see a dentist!) Imagine a situation where one dentist and 4 hygienists (and an average of a penny or two per child per year as budgeted by the government) were responsible for all these elementary school students. Obviously it is a hopeless situation without outside intervention.

Rise Above Foundation organizes free dental camps for underprivileged families. Originally sparked by an article in the Danish Dental Journal back in 2002, dentists now travel regularly from Denmark to work with local dentists in providing dental care to the needy. Most of the dental missions, which last from 1 – 2 weeks each, are arranged on the island of Cebu, as well as on the nearby islands of Bohol, Negros and Leyte.

"Nice Smile" Dental Clinic a reality!

It had long been our dream to have our own mobile clinic. In past years, while organizing dental missions in depressed areas, we determined to be able to offer long term solutions to the immense dental problems facing poor children.

Working to set up the clinic, Flemming Hansen instructing Dr. Dino Natividad and Dr. Mona Rica Melecio in reporting procedures.

Flemming with Gabriel (technician) and Marie Tangalin (reporting, registration and record keeping), dentists and our first patients.

Our Nice Smile" dental clinic is now a reality. Through sponsorship from the Danish Rotary Club, the United Nations Women's Guild of Geneva, Switzerland and local sponsors, we were able to launch our free dental clinic, "Nice Smile" at the beginning of 2006. Rotary pledged to pay the wages of 2 dentists and 1 secretary/assistant for one year, and through the other sponsors, we were able to purchase all the needed equipment and some of the needed materials and medicine.

Our need is now sponsorship for medicine and materials on an ongoing basis. We believe that treatment together with regular tooth brushing as well as information and education will help pull these kids up to a healthy standard of oral care, and a brighter future with beautiful smiles.

Micky assisting Dr. Maiken Mansfeld.

Happy beneficiary, thankful for the treatment.

Food programs

Another program operated by Rise Above Foundation is a food program. Take the thousand students at Maghaway Elementary School. Forty percent of the students at the school are malnourished because the students come from a very poor area where many parents are unemployed.

Through sponsorship, these children receive a nutritious lugaw meal. This is a Filipino dish cooked in large pots over open fires, made with chicken, rice and vegetables cooked into a stew.

School children are otherwise absent from school because they have no food, and some attend only half the day, being too weak to concentrate.

1000 students can be fed for the low cost of US$ 200, partnering with local companies and individuals helping to sponsor this program. Can you help with financial sponsorship?

Rise Above Foundation also distributes food weekly to children in different hospitals and institutions. Restaurants take part in this event, providing the children with nutritious and wholesome food and snacks. Through sponsorship, RAF also buys needed food items that we distribute to indigent families at the pediatric ward of The Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Center.

Rise Above Foundation hopes to secure larger premises from which to base all their programs, including a daycare center, and from there develop a microfinance program.

Marie Tangalin with volunteers serving the students their lunch.

Kids and teachers enthusiastically help with the clean-up.

Elementary school children enjoy a nutritious lunch.

Sweet Filipino girls, with full tummies and contented smiles.