Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans

Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans is a community of humanitarian advocacy-driven individuals, mostly teachers, students, and other external sponsors organized by Teacher Janette Villaralvo, that conducts biannual charity outreach programs to the indigenous Mangyan people in Paluan, Occidental Mindoro (Philippines).

Carried out in April and December, these outreach programs are aimed at transforming the lives of indigenous Mangyans through provisions of necessities including food, clothing, hygiene kits, and others such as educational and medical services. Visit Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans Facebook community now!

Paluan Mangyans

Paluan Mangyans, who were once coastal dwellers, now live secludedly in remote parts of Paluan, Occidental Mindoro, however occasionally come down to make trades and social contacts with the lowland people. As it happens, Paluan Mangyans, being indigenous people, remain underprivileged, hence receiving limited access to the standards of living within the municipality. In small agricultural and peaceful communities, Paluan Mangyans can be found in Agdilao, Ulasan, Anduyanan, and Ignunuk.

Paluan is a third-class rural and agricultural municipality located at the northwestern tip of Occidental Mindoro. It can be reached in about four hours of both land and sea travel from Batangas Port – first two hours by ship (Montenegro Lines) and another two hours by van from Port of Abra de Ilog (northern Occidental Mindoro).

What You Can Donate

Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans welcomes your donations in kind and cash. A non-government, non-profit community, we rely mostly on donations from our colleagues, our generous students, and other individual and institutional sponsors who believe in our humanitarian cause. If we’ve touched your hearts through our photos shared here, you can also extend your compassion and support by donating any of these priority needs:

Hygiene Kits and Other Medical Products. As much as we want to introduce hygienic practices to maintain health and prevent diseases among Paluan Mangyans, we are accepting hygiene kits and other medical donations such as bath and laundry soaps, toothbrush and toothpastes, shampoos, combs, nail cutters, wound care products, and bandages among others.

School Supplies. Paluan Mangyans, especially the elementary-level kids attend minority schools established by the local and national government units. As we promote education among them, we want them to enjoy their schooling through donated school supplies usually writing and coloring tools, paper products, coloring books, and others. School supplies can be best donated before the opening of classes in June, hence usually distributed sometime in April and May.

Clothes and Slippers. From traditional loin clothes, Paluan Mangyans have learned the convenience and comfort of wearing lowland people’s shirts and shorts. You can also donate your used clothes or buy these kids comfortable ‘pambahay’ clothes. Equally important, Paluan Mangyans, especially the kids of three to ten years badly need slippers for without these, most get wounds and infections on their feet.

Food and Canned Goods. Paluan Mangyans are people of gratitude and appreciation. Seldom that they taste food as delicious as sautéed corned beef or a piping hot noodle soup; hence, your donation of food and other canned goods will be greatly appreciated.

Kids’ Toys. Yes, Paluan Mangyan kids may be enjoying playing ‘habulan’ at the nearby ricefield dikes, but they will be more fascinated with even simple mechanical toys. You can never really tell until you see the smiles on their faces and observe how they start discovering what their new toys can do and what can be done with them.

Cash (for the installation of ‘poso’ or traditional water hand pump). Most communities of Paluan Mangyans have limited access to potable water. As what we have observed, they would simply drink and use open-source water for household purposes (the same for agricultural irrigation); hence, we plan to install traditional water hand pumps or ‘poso’ for their convenience.

After all, there are health risks of open-source water consumption as this can be contaminated with agricultural toxic residues. We haven’t had an estimate yet about the cost of installing at least three water hand pumps, but you can always make cash donations for this purpose.

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” ― Shannon L. Alder, Inspirational Author

How You Can Donate

Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans maintains a Facebook online community. Send us a message or call +639-153-937-944 (Teacher Janette Villaralvo) for more details. You can also send an email to [email protected]. Share this article to your friends and relatives around the world!

Photos were taken during our most recent outreach program (December 27, 2017). Educate and Support Paluan Mangyans is a community supported by iMillennial Publishers. Hence, we encourage our dear readers to extend as well their support by making donations either in cash or kind.