It was 2011 when Andrea, a long-time friend of Francesco – founder of Isla ng Bata NGO- arrived for the first time in the Bata ng Calabnugan orphanage (family home) in the Philippines.
Thanks to his profession as an engineer, he was able to take part in the work for the agricultural and rural project of Isla ng Bata.
Bringing his knowledge and expertise, he helped with the planning and rendered manual labour work to build structures that improved the lives of the children in the family home (e.g. water wheel to supply free water for laundry and agricultural needs, a small bridge over a stream to ease transportation, individual storages for the children to safely store their personal belonging, small Family Home to support struggling families in the community, etc.).
Few years later, his life took him to England but the bond with Isla ng Bata and the children in the family home never faded. From his first visit in 2011, Andrea has been committed to render voluntary service in the Family Home every few years. In 2023, he brought his young family of two with him to the family home to give his own children a valuable and meaningful experience in their very young lives.
There are many initiatives that, even remotely, it has continued to carry out to concretely help the children welcomed into the Family Home. It has involved many people across the world in events to raise awareness of the issue of children and adolescents’ rights through Isla’s projects. This year, Andrea decided to combine two important dates, the birthdays of his children Diana 4 and Aidan 2, with the opportunity to support a very important mission through a crowdfunding to support the medical care of the girls welcomed into the Family Home.
Thanks to Andrea, Danielle and for all those who act as spokespersons for Isla ng Bata’s mission, we have achieved important objectives: supporting the education of the children we welcome by giving them a better future, guaranteeing their fundamental rights, covering the costs of necessary medical and psychological treatments, for the absence of which, they would have risked their lives continuing living in poverty, neglect and their basic human rights being violated. We can do a lot for them because “no child chooses the place in which they are born, but their future depends on each of us working together!”