
Project Managers Flemming and Elisabet Hansen |
Cebu City, Philippines
Channel of Hope Cebu
Project No: P27
Project Managers: Flemming and Elisabet Hansen
Contact Info:
flemming@channel-of-hope.org
Flemming and Elisabet Hansen have managed Channel
of Hope (COH) in Cebu since 2000. Their Danish-Philippine volunteer
teachers' program arranges for student teachers from Denmark to
do their internship in the Philippines, where they carry out their
practicum at different schools and institutions. This program has
really caught on in Denmark, so many students request this placement
for their internship, an opportunity to help teach street children
and those growing up in the slums.
Channel of Hope Cebu 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.
Additionally, Channel of Hope Cebu organizes free dental camps for
underprivileged families. Sparked by an article in the Danish Dental
Journal 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 are arranged on the island of Cebu, but in
recent years the dental program has expanded to include treating
the poor who live on the nearby islands of Bohol, Negros and Leyte.
To
donate to this Family Care Foundation Project, please note Project
NAME and then click here.
Volunteer Education Program
Christina, shown with fellow volunteers,taught
for 6 months at this school and adoption center. |
Martin and Trine teaching children at the
center: A class on the country of Denmark. |
Our cultural exchange program involves student teachers
from Denmark spending time in Cebu to help out as volunteers in
the poorer schools and institutions.
Dan, an IT man from Copenhagen, together
with 2 girls who live on a garbage dump.
|
Christina, one of 50 Danish student
teachers who came to Cebu. |
Their duties include teaching children who literally
live in rubbish dumps and harbor slums. This serves two purposes.
Dan and Natalia served as volunteers in
Cebu for 6 months. |
Cooking for the school children at the
rubbish dump is part of the experience. |
- 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.
- The young men and women go back to Denmark as changed persons.
Seeing the conditions that the poor live under, malnourished children,
people dying simply because they lack money to buy basic antibiotics,
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.
Maria from Denmark speaking to women
prisoners in Guadalupe. |
Teaching the local kids teamwork skills
through fun and games. |
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 offer
a house for accommodations, a home away from home, instead of them
living in a hotel.
Dental Mission
Treating people from Pier 4, the harbor
slum, in this warehouse lent by a
Chinese businessman. |
Dentists who came from Denmark working
hand in hand with Channel of Hope
volunteers. |
Many children in the Philippines never brush their
teeth simply because their parents cannot afford to buy toothbrushes
and toothpaste and have no knowledge of its importance.
Dr. Maiken with one of her patients at
Maghaway elementary school. |
George, a bank manager, volunteered to
assist Dr. John Christensen. |
Research shows that 97% of the Philippine population
suffers from dental cavities. And 77% of all Filipinos have never
visited a dentist in their life. The average 12-year-old has 5 decayed
permanent teeth, and more than 90% have never had any treatment.
Micky assisting Dr. Maiken Mansfeld. |
Kids anxiously waiting for their turn. |
Working with Cebu Dental Society,
Department of Education and a host of
volunteers. |
Josh, a young missionary, seen here
assisting Dr. John Christensen with a
patient. |
Leila Hansen working on the patient
registration and reporting. |
Trine, Danish volunteer and Dr. Inger
Manon organizing tools. |
Dental Mission team partnering with
Mandaue and Cebu Dental Societies. |
In this 4-week Dental Mission 1,987 patients
were treated by Danish and local dentists. |
Dr. Mette Sofie Christensen treating a
patient in Jaclupan, Talisay. |
Hansen teen working as volunteer,
helping to assist the foreign dentists. |

Using mobile equipment from KADVO,
a Japanese based foundation.
|

Happy beneficiary, thankful for the
treatment.
|
The Dental Team gathers in Cebu City. |
Dental Team being received in Ormoc.
|
Celeste sterilizing dental instruments.
|
Oral examination of 6th grade kids.
|
"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.
Basic Oral Care Program
Flemming visiting elementary school in
Mandaue to monitor the Oral Care Program. |
How to use a Toothbrush class with Uncle
Thor. “OK, now brush up and down like this!”
|
Having witnessed the sad state of oral hygiene standards of poor
children in the area, COH launched a tooth-brushing program in Mandaue
City in four government elementary schools and six government daycare
centers in 2004. We can provide toothbrushes and toothpaste for
only 20 pesos (US$ 0.40) per child/year, this step alone greatly
improving the children's oral hygiene.
Toothpaste and toothbrushes for elementary
schools in Mandaue. |
M. Flemming and Elisabet donating
toothpaste and toothbrushes. |
As of June 2005, the Oral Care Program has now been adapted to
cover all the elementary schools and daycare centers in Mandaue
City and in Nov. 2005 seminars were held in Talisay, the city to
the south, where implementation will start at the beginning of the
school year in June 2006. We are working closely with the Department
of Education and the Department of Health (who oversees the daycare
centers).
Food programs
Susanne Hansen from COH serving the
families at pediatrics ward of VSMMC,
together with Danish volunteers. |
Susanne Hansen taking the opportunity
to cheer up the young wards in the
pediatrics ward with Sally the puppet. |
COH 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, COH also buys needed food
items that we distribute to indigent families at the pediatrics
ward of The Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Center.
Marie from COH cooking with large pots,
helped by sponsors of the activity. |
Kids from school class enjoying their lugau
(rice, chicken and vegetable stew.)
|
We have been expanding our food program to the poor of Cebu City.
Seeing that elementary schools in the hinterland of Cebu are very
poor, and up to 40% of the children are malnourished, we have focused
on a particular area where we provide food for 3 schools.
We can feed 1000 students only cost 180 US$, with local companies
and individuals helping to sponsor this program. School children
are otherwise absent from school because they have no food, and
some attend only half the day, being too weak to concentrate. Can
you help with financial sponsorship?
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. |
|