Doing good in memory of Jack William Rice, JWR Outreach volunteers have been providing underserved communities with access to nutrition, sanitation, medical care, and education.
Led by Richel Sulyao, JWR Outreach volunteers have been delivering aid to rural communities throughout Mindanao, including building more than 30 community sanitation facilities in rural Talacogon, providing Mamanwa tribal families with nutrition support after Typhoon Odette, distributing food and water after the Agusan del Sur floods, and supporting classroom renovation and education programs.
Richel Sulyao coordinated everything JWR Outreach did on the ground: coordinating with village leaders and local health authorities, sourcing materials, hiring local masons and recruiting volunteers, arranging transport over roads that often became impassable in the rainy season, overseeing construction, and organising distribution.
None of these projects would have started, or finished, without her.
Many households in San Isidro, a remote farming community, had no toilet. Open defecation in the street was commonplace. OD contaminates drinking water and spreads cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. Supporting the local health authority's Zero Open Defecation goal, JWR Outreach built more than 30 sanitation facilities, each with a concrete floor, a toilet bowl and a shelter, and each serving a household of typically one to four people.
Materials were bought in bulk to cut costs and trucked to Talacogon, the nearest accessible village, then carried in. Local masons were hired for the concrete work.
The Mamanwa are one of the oldest indigenous groups in the Philippines. Typhoon Odette destroyed the coconut trees that provide most of their income, leaving persistent food shortages. When rains cut off access to San Isidro, JWR Outreach redirected funds here.
Food packs of rice, noodles, sardines, coffee, biscuits, oranges and juice went to 40 households with more than 50 children, distributed with the Barangay Captain.
In February 2024, heavy rains in Agusan del Sur left thousands without food or clean drinking water, destroying homes and the crops the region depends on. This is where JWR Outreach volunteers live and had been building sanitation facilities. Volunteers distributed food and clean drinking water.
Classroom repairs and renovations at a school in Talacogon, including walls, floors, ceilings, roofing, and a new TV for the classroom.
