SPARK

vision: We envision a society filled with grit, passion and optimism

Mission: It is our mission to bring happiness to the communities we serve

Background

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 in Philippines had major effects in the villages surrounding the area. To this day, some of the remote villages such as Santa Fe, San Marcelino Zambales are still recovering from this disaster and struggling to access basic services: education to being one of them. Primary school students from these community have limited access to resources such as school supplies, food and electric energy. To help support these population, we have established Spark Initiative in 2014. Since then, we have served 3 elementary schools of more than 250 students, providing school supplies, lunch packages and solar panel for the school community. To fund this initiative, our founder, Carlo Fabros saved his cash tips as a room service server at Mohonk Mountain House in New York to finance the first project.

After our first program, we realized that our project is not sustainable to fulfill their needs in their community. After brainstorming with our group of volunteers, we have decided to provide a communal school supplies box called: “SDG4 Supply Chest”. SDG4 is in reference to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 on promoting quality education for all. The SDG Supply Chest aims to recycle unused school supplies from schools and only use what is needed while we replenish what is lacking or needs to be refilled. This project aims to provide assistance to students and help them be active member of their community by sharing the limited resources they have. Our last project was a Solar Panel for both United Nations Women Aeta School and Baliwet Elementary School communities. Both schools are in inaccessible location at the most rural area away from the city where they need to cross rivers and walk over hills to get to school. We believe that providing sustainable tools such as the Solar Panel can enhance their educational formation, and we have been able to fulfill our mission in bringing a spark in their lives.

Spark is a social initiative program providing a ray of hope for primary students in a marginalized community in Zambales, Philippines.