About Us
Passion for the Poor International has been serving the impoverished women and children of East Asia since 1999. Through cooperation with institutions and school leaders throughout the region, PFP has helped scores of students develop lives of character and purpose, to give them a future and a hope. In addition, PFP has worked to give medical assistance wherever it has encountered need, working with local and international doctors and hospitals in the fight against cancer and other diseases. PFP also has been on the front lines in the war on poverty and abuse.
Women and children continue to be the most neglected and abused subgroup in East Asia. Our goal is to strategically apply the resources at our disposal to promote healthy, whole, and balanced societies in this critical region.
Our Focus
Poverty Relief
Much of East Asia remains impoverished. Many are forced to live on an unfathomable daily wage. Opportunities for advancement are limited or impossible. Often, children are unable to attend school due to daily responsibilities, and without education the cycle of poverty inevitably continues. Parents even resort to extreme measures to improve their situation. Children are made to beg, or are married off or even sold into slavery.
Though all of what we do, including education and medical assistance, could be considered poverty relief, PFP looks for ways to alleviate poverty in a general sense wherever it is encountered. Financial aid constitutes the bulk of our efforts in this area, but we also work to provide employment assistance and find other ways to help impoverished families regain their footing and realize opportunities they previously only dreamed of.
Medical Assistance
Extreme poverty has left many without any means to combat serious disease. In many parts of East Asia, particularly rural areas, little or no medical resources of any kind exist. In our travels around the region, PFP has sought to give help however it can. Special attention is given to the most extreme cases and disadvantageous of circumstances, and priority is given, as always, to women and children. When such cases are encountered, PFP seeks to provide the best care available. When we are able, we transport patients to larger cities where we procure and fund treatment. Cancer, genetic abnormalities, TB, and severe burns are some of the many things we fight against.
Once or twice a year, PFP invites medical professionals to volunteer their services for a clinic outreach. Temporary clinics are set up in remote villages where health care is nonexistent. In addition to physical examinations and cancer screenings, basic hygiene is taught. PFP has been able to cooperate with local governments and national and international doctors and has seen significant progress made. In more than a few cases, lives have been truly rescued and hope restored.
Education
Since the beginning of our work, PFP has provided education assistance to students or prospective students of all ages. In both urban and rural areas, education is often short-lived or nonexistent due to a variety of barriers and hindrances. In many urban areas, students of migrant workers often are unable to attend school due to resident status. Orphans or children of addicts are similarly unable to attend school without outside assistance. In rural areas, resources are often inadequate.
PFP has assisted thousands of migrant children attend school by cooperating with local private schools, or, in some cases, by establishing independent schools and taking on operating costs. In the countryside, PFP has partnered with local governments and villages to fund school buildings and provide necessary school supplies.
As education is critical to escaping poverty and abuse, education assistance remains on the forefront of PFP’s efforts across East Asia and beyond.