‘Cassie’s Bag of Dreams’ helps Badjao kids

MANILA, Philippines - Instead of a big birthday celebration, a 10-year-old girl from San Francisco, California raised $6,000 to buy school supplies for 300 students of Talao-Talao Elementary School and Dalahican National High School, mostly of the indigenous Badjao people of Lucena in Quezon province.

Cassandra Simone Eng or Cassie, daughter of Harry Eng and Mailou San Gabriel and a grade 6 pupil of the Chinese-American International School, partnered with the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation for the project.

“Cassie’s Bag of Dreams Challenge” was an online fund-raising campaign to help poor children with their education. In just a month, she raised $6,000.

Cassie said a tragic event like Super Typhoon Yolanda that she saw on television news and some documentaries forced children, instead of going to school, to go for work just to survive.

“I believe that education is the key to escape from poverty and I want to help them to reach that goal for a better life,” the young girl said.

Cassie teamed up with Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, a non-government organization that helps children who used to swim to school in the mangrove village of Layag-Layag, Zamboanga City.

Just like Cassie, the idea behind Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation is to pool their own individual resources to help the less fortunate children get to school safe and dry.

“I’m planning to do it for the rest of my life,” Cassie said.