Ruel Foundation

Let me introduce you to our beautiful little Sarah. She was born 10 weeks premature and weighing only 1.2KG (2.6lb). Her mum is 22 years old, and this is baby number 6.

You can see there’s a problem here…

Ruel House is an orphanage and medical crisis centre in the Philippines, it’s a nice place, we can have up to 50 children in school and care, and we can house up to 6 critically ill children or babies at any one time… It’s a busy place… It’s a happy place, but it can also be a sad place...

Children like Sarah are bought to us on a regular basis, parents turn up distraught, confused and scared with children who are often at deaths door.

Let me introduce you to parents of children just like Sarah.

They come from a deeply religious background, newly married and things are going well for them. Naturally babies arrive -- their religion doesn’t allow for family planning, but there’s enough to go around, babies keep coming and they’re happy… Up until baby number 4. That’s when things get tough.

Being subsistence farmers, there’s hardly enough hours in the day to produce enough food to feed a family this size, let alone for extras or to pay for medical bills when someone is sick.

Baby number 5 comes along and things get crazy… then, unplanned and unprepared, baby number 6 arrives.

They adopt a sense of fatality, rationalizing the child’s fate to be that of Gods will. It’s out of their hands now and in the hands of the Divine.

The fact is, there’s just not enough to go around. Feeding her rice water and a declining share of the family’s food, she starts to get sick. Malnutrition makes infection inevitable and without intervention she is lost.

Here’s where they arrive at our door. Confused, scared and desperate. Seekng intervention of any kind. And that’s where you continue to step in time and time again. A couple of dollars here and there allows us to be the deliverer of redemption for these children and families. Medical costs, food, clothing, housing, care... all provided for these wonderfully fortunate children by you, giving them a real shot at life...

Our deepest thanks goes to you.

If you'd like to help Sarah, or a child just like her, you can find out more about our short term sponsorship programme here