Ruel Foundation

Ian was born with two club feet and a dislocated hip and is the youngest in a family of three. His Mother is a housekeeper and his father a fisherman, both without the family support and financial resources to deal with Ian's deformities. With the help of the Ruel Foundation we have begun a series of medical procedures to restore back Ian's ability to walk. Due to the nature of Ian's condition, he is required to have a cast in place for most of the time, immobilizing him, which is frustrating for the boy.

Her village was about as poor as you can get. Her father was a fisherman until the fish ran out! He works when he can find it and his little family makes do with what they have. The one thing that jumps out at you when you meet this family is not the poverty but the over whelming love they have for their children. Like many children in the Philippines, Miss M was born with not quite all her skull bones fully developed due to a lack of nutritious food available to her mother.

Miss L's parents were thrilled at the news that they were expecting a baby girl. However, they knew that life would not be easy for their new baby. Living high in the mountain rangers above Calapan City on Mindoro Island in the Philippines, poverty was a way of life for the Manyan tribe. Very little was available in the way of education for the children and the nearest rudimentary medical care was a two hour trip down the mountain in a motorised tricycle.

Ruel lived in and isolated village on the isolated island of Eastern Samar in the Philippines. Born with a double cleft lip and pallet he had problem swallowing food - assuming that there was food to swallow, which there wasn’t! The fact that his parents didn't really want him, limited his life expectancy considerably. He became so weak his parents finally brought him to the local hospital where he was discovered by David Cowie, the Founder of the Ruel Foundation. With no money to pay for any kind of medication, the nurses put Ruel was put on a saline drip and “hoped for the best”.