Jane Walker Climbing Mt Blanc for Hedge End-based Charity, the Philippine Community Fund

The Hedge End-based charity the Philippine Community Fund (PCF) provides healthcare, education and skills training to some of the poorest Filipino communities – and its founder, Jane Walker, is climbing Mt Blanc to raise money for the charity.

Last year Hedge End-born Jane received a Woman of the Year award for her work in the slums and squatter areas of Manila where she has set up three schools, health clinics and established literacy classes for adults and skills training in sewing, electronics and jewellery making. 

Jane now lives in the Far East, but her sister, Ange, runs the Hedge End end of the charity, organising the Philippine child sponsorship programme and the charity’s fundraising and recycling initiatives. Ange and the Hedge End volunteers are, as Jane stressed in the article which appeared on Hedgeendpeople last October, vital to the success of the work in the Philippines. 

Of her current plans, Jane says, “I am going to climb Mt Blanc – the highest mountain in Europe at 4886 meters (over half the height of Mt Everest).

“The challenge, to be truthful, is exciting but terrifying me at the same time!

“I have been training hard for the past five months with the goal of reaching the summit to help the children on the dumpsite I’ve been working on for the last 10 years.

“£10,000 will enable PCF to rescue another 125 children from a life of child labour and send them to PCF’s school for one whole year!

“Please be generous – thank you so much for your support.”

If you’d like to sponsor Jane you can do so via the JustGiving website – and if you’d like to do some volunteering for the charity in Hedge End contact The Philippine Community Fund, P.O Box 294, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 2YD, phone 01489 790219, or email Ange on c.org.uk">ange@p-f-c.org.uk, and you can find further information about the charity’s work on their website.

photo of Mt Blanc from Flickr by ti_lapin_tom.