Hope Flows

Update On Our Activities

jeremysmith — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:57:01 +0000

These last few weeks and months i’ve been going at a somewhat hectic if not manic pace. I’ve recently been wrapping up my long planned trip where I traveled across the entire Philippines via motorcycle. It has been an incredible journey that has truly cemented my love and passion for this country. Having driven across the vast majority of the Philippines has given me among many other things a greater vision and scope for how Hope Flows can be an active participant in this country’s continued growth and development. One of the single greatest lessons I’ve taken away from this trip is that the Philippines is not a third world country, its a developing country. Everywhere I drove construction sites were being worked on, roads were being built and new businesses were opening their doors. It’s truly an exciting time to be here! However, the levels of growth are not as evenly distributed throughout the country as I once thought. While the northern and central regions of the country are experiencing record breaking economic growth, certain areas of Southern and Western Mindanao stand in stark contrast. Poverty is still rampant in these areas and extremist and separatist movements are seizing on the lack of development to ensnare disenchanted Filipinos into their causes. Being able to gauge the level of development across the country has reaffirmed my belief that Hope Flows should maintain a laser focus on Mindanao and especially regions that are in greatest need. In keeping with that vision, I am currently in Zamboanga Del Norte, a province in Western Mindanao with the unlucky distinction of being the absolute poorest province in the Philippines. Over 60% of the population here earns less than two dollars a day. Kidnapping is not uncommon and a mixture of jihadist and communist insurgencies scare away potential investors that could give desperately needed jobs to the population here. The heart of Hope Flows has always been to help those in greatest need, so working here seems like a bit of a no-brainer. We’ve already pinpointed our first pilot project in the area. Its a school located in barangay New Siquijor, in the municipality of Mutia within the province of ZamNorte… That’s a mouthful. The school is located rather oddly in my opinion at the top of a large hill, while the majority of the students live in the valley below. Every morning, students must carry water for their personal needs in large containers from the municipal source, a capped spring, all the way up the hill to their school. The distance between the source and the school is almost a kilometer. Hope Flows has two options, either drilling a well at the school which hopefully will produce water, or the much more expensive option of installing piping from the capped well to the school. I am meeting with numerous provincial engineers on monday to further assess the situation and decide the best course of action. Of course I’ll keep you all informed with what happens regarding that. As I said, this is a pilot project, and after we’ve completed it and cemented relationships with the local government and business community, our goal will be to complete projects at least seven other schools in the surrounding barangays. I chose this school because it is by far the most challenging project, so we might as well start with the hardest and work our way down afterwards. We are also still at work in Saragani Province and will be working on projects there within the coming months. As you can see, things are moving into full swing here, and your continued support, whether financial, prayers, or even just reposting something of ours online really means the world to me personally, as well as everyone else involved in Hope Flows. I cannot begin to thank you all enough for continuing to believe in and support a guy who saw a need that wasn’t being met and decided that despite his numerous disqualifications, was going to try and do something about it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you have any questions whatsoever please feel free to email me (jeremy@hopeflowsinternational.org) or to talk with me face to face via skype (jeremysmith231)

Our next projects

jeremysmith — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:03:26 +0000

We’re starting on some brand new projects in the coming weeks. We’re looking to install some water systems in a completely different part of Mindanao, the conflict prone Zamboanga Peninsula. For obvious security reasons, we won’t be giving exact locations until after the projects are completed. These projects will pose a new set of challenges for us, considering we will be working in relatively remote mountainous area. We may have to try some new methods, all of which we’ll be documenting and showing you afterwards. Keep checking back, things are getting interesting here.

Jeremy

Where We’ve been

jeremysmith — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:59:40 +0000

Over the last month and a half, I’ve been driving around the Philippines on a motorcycle. I’ve been able to visit almost all the Philippines and fallen even more in love with this amazing country. Its been an eye opening experience, showing me the rate of development all over the country. Honestly, it has left me encouraged, seeing that this is not the backwards minded third world country some make it out to be, but actually a vibrant and growing developing country. Below is a map of where all I’ve been. We’re getting back to work immediately, hopefully drilling our next well within a week or so!

Jeremy

View Jeremy’s Motour Map in a larger map

Hope Flows featured in the news!

jeremysmith — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:52:07 +0000

Hope Flows was recently featured in a Filipino news piece. Check it out!

http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/634-foreigner-finds-hope-in-pinoy-spirit

Jeremy’s Motour

jeremysmith — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:48:07 +0000

Hope Flows is taking on an ambitious PR campaign to raise awareness towards our operations here in the Philippines. I (jeremy) am driving across the entire country on a motorcycle, filming the entire experience and posting it on social networking sites. The philosophy behind it is simple: The more attention that can be attracted me by visiting tourist sights and simply making interesting videos, some of that attention will get deflected towards Hope Flows. We haven’t even started and already we’ve received more publicity in the last six weeks than the previous six months. We’re incredibly excited to see where this can take us in the near future. You can see all the videos as well as the reaction from the social media community here- www.facebook.com/jeremysmotour. Here is a sample video… enjoy

Jeremy

Long overdue update

jeremysmith — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:35:32 +0000

Despite the lack of updates, we’ve been quite busy here. We’re currently crafting our first PR campaign, which should be revealed in the next week or so. Until then, enjoy this video!

Pretty Incredible

jeremysmith — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:02:07 +0000

The kids at these schools want water projects installed, so much so that they’re willing to sacrifice their precious candy money to help fund projects. Of course we’re not trying to extract money from the kids, and the amount raised is not much (3 pesos per student or about $0.06.) Its not about needing to fill the gap as much as it is teaching kids to take ownership of the project. It is no longer a western santa claus coming through town dispersing aid, but a project they can take pride in knowing they helped fund. The reaction we’ve got so far is great. Kids seem genuinely excited to donate a few pesos. We’ll be explaining this process more as time goes on, it’s still in the test phases but it seems like a winner. Basically, kids in a third world nation whose parents earn less than a dollar a day are willing to donate… are you?

Lets start a movement.

jeremysmith — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:13:32 +0000

We just updated the donate page with a new feature! You can now opt to donate an amount monthly to help support completing water projects here in the Philippines. If everyone donated 10 dollars a month… well that adds up. …

read more »

New Video Blog

jeremysmith — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:01:32 +0000

The schools we’re working with currently are located in one of the poorest regions in all of the Philippines. A lot of the parents of the children here earn one or two dollars a day, or even less. Hunger is an ever-present reality and the threat of ethnic tension always looms, yet children here exude levels joy and happiness that seem unexplainable. It is truly a testament to the power of finding joy in the midst of sufferings. I could learn something from these kids.

Updated About Section

jeremysmith — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:52:00 +0000

We just added a Google map on our about page that shows where all of our completed and pending projects are located. If you click on the pins, you can see some details about the projects and the attendance at that school. If you do the math, when all the projects we have currently are completed, We’ll have already directly impacted 3000 students. Pretty amazing for being around for about two months if you ask me… but then again I’m biased.

Jeremy