Paul van Wijgerden has never been to Estevan. But for someone born in the Netherlands who now lives in the Philippines, he has a pretty good knowledge of the city.
That's largely because Estevan residents, as they often do, have stepped up for a good cause.
In this case, the cause is Young Focus, an organization he founded with his wife Ann, to help Filipino children who live in the slums of Manila.
A number of residents have made donations to Young Focus and have helped the van Wijgerdens assist children in the area known as Smoky Mountain, which is, literally, a mountain of garbage where thousands of people live in some of the toughest conditions possible. Young Focus has a variety of programs with many of them focused on ensuring the children on Smoky Mountain are able to get a proper education.
Both Paul and Ann will be in Estevan over the next few days for the Young Focus golf tournament Sept. 18 at the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club. The cost for the tournament is $100. Anyone interested in playing or donating may contact [email protected].
All money raised at the initial event will go towards the organization, which does not receive any government support and must rely solely on the generosity of its donors.
In an interview over Skype prior to his departure for Canada, van Wijgerden noted his exposure to Estevan came through Tareina Hunt, who spent six months in the Philippines volunteering at their child care centre.
van Wijgerden said they get a number of volunteers at their centre, most of them from the Netherlands. However, he noted that Hunt stepped up on the financial side, getting a number of financial sponsorships and commitments from friends and businesses in Estevan.
"To me personally it was a great encouragement when Tareina was here," van Wijgerden said. "It started first with the Christmas project giving out meals to families in the garbage town. She did the fundraising for that.
"We have this love to learn class that is for drop out kids that don't go to school anymore and she felt that all of those kids need to be sponsored so she started communicating and a lot of people responded. A whole class of 25 kids was sponsored."
Prior to Hunt's arrival, van Wijgerden said the majority of their funds came from the Netherlands. They also looked towards England but then shifted to Canada thanks to the help of Hunt and friends.
"We needed a lot of equipment for that as well, like computers and a printer to set up a public relations and communications department," he said. "Friends of Tareina helped with that and did fund raising so overall it is just a tremendous boost in a new direction for Young Focus. We are a small organization and we want to develop and grow and we want more kids to go to school and get off the dump."
Although he had been to Canada before, van Wijgerden admitted his knowledge of the country was limited to Ontario, Quebec and B.C. However, when money began flowing in from Estevan he was eager to learn more about the city.
"Thank God for Google Maps," he joked. "I even went on Google street view and walked around the streets. It was very interesting talking to Tareina because she was talking about her city and how near they are to the United States. For me it was a new area.
"It was funny because when you start looking for other places where you can do fund raising, you think of big cities because that is where the people are. But there has been an amazing response from Estevan. Whenever I talk to people I always mention there is this city there and you will not believe what comes out of it."
van Wijgerden estimated that between 30 and 40 children are being sponsored by Estevan and area donors that contribute money each month. Those contributions allow Young Focus to bring a child into their program at Kindergarten and stay until they hopefully decide to attend college. Donations from local residents helped around 95 kids enjoy Christmas as well.
One of the most recent initiatives for Young Focus was the creation of what is called Childcare Plus. Prior to its creation Young Focus had no programs for kids between the ages of four and eight. van Wijgerden said Childcare Plus has filled in that gap.
"There was a gap that needed to be filled and I thought it was all too big and too costly. I was already worried about the other programs that also needed funding. Tareina was really the motivator behind it."
van Wijgerden said Young Focus has enough finances for the first year of Childcare Plus and will need to raise more money for the following years.
He noted the money raised at the golf tournament will go towards their various programs including Childcare Plus.
