Free money from a Lakeshore foundation is being given to some of the poorest families in the Philippines.
The free funds would make Long Branch accountant, the late Phillip Barker, a happy man.
Barker, who passed away in May, was founder of the Lakeshore Charitable Foundation (LCF) and four-decade owner of Lakeshore Accounting. He was well-respected as a long-time Treasurer, of the Long Branch BIA.
The foundation, which sponsored the Bay Bay Central School in the Philippines, has over the years sent hundreds of text books, schools supplies, laptop computers, printers and other supplies to help the poor students.
They also repaired the school buildings and added a new roof, shade protection and sent desks from Canada. In addition, they established a breakfast club feeding hundreds of pupils daily and presented awards for student performance yearly.
“A lot has changed in the world since the passing of the President of the Foundation,” says LCF director Rosemary Smart. “As a director I have undertaken a new project in the Philippines. “
Smart, with the invaluable help from rural community leaders in that country, were able to identify some of the poorest families with kids attending the LCF-sponsored school, and distributed cash pesos to dozens of needy families.
“The LCF gave the sum of 2,000 Philippine peso (or about $50 Cdn) to each recipient’s family who were suffering without jobs or government support,” she says in an email, adding they assisted 40 families with cash to purchase food and other supplies.
She says a list of needy families were provided to the foundation and she used advocates in the Philippines who travelled to a remote barangay to locate the recipients and hand over the money.
“They went to the remote places where the poorest of the poor families lived,” Smart says of the search party. “One by one they searched for their homes.”
It took the search party four hours to find the recipients, many who were elderly with little or no families.
“We cried watching these poorest of the poor families suffer with no food,” she recalls. “Some of them lived in a space smaller than a pig’s house.”
The work of the foundation and fundraising continue in Etobicoke to help others making Barker a very proud man.