High Church holds an election ea

High Cross Church holds an election each year to choose a charity to sponsor. For the last 6 years we have been sponsoring the Asian Students Christian Trust (ASCT).

ASCT was formed in February 1975 specifically to provide care and education for deprived children in Asia. Initially, a handful of children were supported in Hong Kong, Vietnam and the Philippines then over the years, the children in Hong Kong and Vietnam were provided for by their respective government organisations. This then allowed ASCT to concentrate their support solely in the Philippines. Our Director in the Philippines is Revd Craig Burrows, an Assemblies of God minister, originally from Yorkshire, who has been working with ASCT in Manila for the last 15 years.

Mango Tree House. This is our own purpose built Residential Home in Quezon City where up to 35 children aged from 5 to over 21 who have been orphaned, abandoned, abused or neglected live with our 10 Filipino live-in staff. Here the children find the love and care which could be found in any large family home in the UK. They live 6 or 8 to a room in dormitories for Elementary Boys, High School Boys and College Boys. Similar arrangements are made for the Girls. The children are provided with all of their daily requirements together with everything necessary for their education in local government run schools. The staff include Social Workers, Teachers, House Parents in addition to those who take care of the Cooking and Laundry.

Cashew Tree School. Here we have our own purpose built Nursery and Pre-School for around 170 children aged 4 to 6 years whose home is on, or around the edge of, the huge Payatas rubbish dump on the outskirts of Manila. The rubbish dump is notorious mainly for being a place of employment for up to 30,000 who sift through the rubbish scavenging 7 days a week in order to be able to sell items from the dump with which to provide food for tomorrow. Between £1 and £2 daily can be earned by each scavenger including children as young as 3 or 4. It is for these families that Cashew Tree School was built in 1998 and was opened by the British Ambassador to the Philippines in November that same year. Children walk from their homes, often made out of scrap materials from the dump, to Cashew where they eagerly learn how to write, identify colours, letters and figures for the very first time. Living in such squalid conditions they are also taught the importance of hygiene. It is incredible that although living in such awful squalor, the children always come to school spotlessly clean.

Grapevine Project. For those children who live with their family, or in many cases within their extended family, but could not afford to go to school, ASCT provide over 50 with a monthly allowance to ensure they have the opportunity to study. Their progress is monitored by our staff from Mango Tree House and if a child is truant, the allowance is stopped until they return to school. Should they decide that they do not want to go to school anymore, they then are discharged from our care to make room for children who have the necessary enthusiasm and desire to study.

In the decades since the work of ASCT was started, we have watched the children, encouraged by Sponsors and Supporters from all over the world, grow as they turn their lives around. Many have graduated from High School, College or University and have become teachers, social workers, nurses, drivers, policemen, shop and restaurant workers and business men and women. We are justifiably proud of all of them.