In the beginning...

A few years ago Florencia Kingscote went home to her native land, the Philippines. In her hometown Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, Florencia witnessed the suffering of so many handicapped children whose impoverished parents were unable to provide for their vary basic needs.

The untold suffering of these children moved Florencia so much that she set up the Philippine Disabled Children Project. In doing so, she hoped to make people aware of the terrible plight of anyone with disabilities in the Philippines.

In the United Kingdom, the handicapped are recognised. They like other human beings, can exercise their basic human rights, they are cared for, they have a voice.

In the Philippines, people who are mentally or physically handicapped are doomed. The stigma attached to the family with a disabled child is so great that such a child is hidden away, not to be seen or heard for fear of being ridiculed. To the community these children do not exist. This is a sad fact, but it is a reality that needs to be addressed not ignored.

The handicapped children in Bambang are left to their own devices whilst their carers are out to toil in the fields or begging to provide for their families.

There is no help coming from anyone at all, these unfortunate children never get the chance to have any form of mental or physical stimulation. They are prisoners in their homes, not knowing that there is another world outside their dark, squalid rooms.

Florencia's heart went out to the carers when she saw their difficulties, hopelessness and frustration of not being able to provide for their unfortunate children.

So the charity began...