Dekeyser & Friends Foundation

General Info

Dekeyser & Friends bridges the gap between young people looking for inspiring and motivating experiences and today’s personalities.

We facilitate and organize exciting cultural, social, sports and start-up Projects, in which Friends pass on their experience, passion and knowledge to young Fellows from around the world.

- Dance project Istanbul, Turkey
- Museum Project. Schliersee, Germany
- Rehousing Project. Cebu, Philippines

Get inspired and participate in the Re-housing Project Cebu, Philippines

Live for 6 months (starting from April 1st 2010) in Cebu, Philippines in a group of 18 Fellows from around the world and help build a new village for scavenger families, who, due to their extreme poverty, have been forced to make a garbage dump their home.

Come and work with these families to build their new homes on their own piece of land in the middle of the forest and make their dreams of a safe and sustainable village come true! About 250 families live in their shanties and makeshift houses made of garbage on the dumpsite. Incomes derived from it are insufficient to meet even the most basic daily needs and they lack sufficient and nutritious food.

Dekeyser & Friends has donated the new land to the Umapad community. We work together with the local Phillipino NGO JPIC-IDC, which helps the families to structure their new lives, as well as to finance their lot and house. JPIC has promoted various successful re-housing projects and has worked with this community for years to build up mutual trust and to empower the people to organize themselves. This new project in which you will be involved is special, since the new village is far away from the dumpsite and the community has to become self-sufficient through sustainable agriculture and cooperatives that sell handmade handicrafts. As a Fellow, you take part in this unique adventure to support the scavengers and informal settler families in Compostella, Cebu to build a new life for themselves.

As a Fellow, you are part of the team from the very beginning. You are involved in building the village from its start. You prepare the site development (prepare the piece of land for construction) and help construct a community center. Together with experts you train the families during a skill development training to start micro-finance cooperatives in sustainable ecological farming, livestock breeding and handmade handicrafts, so that the families can make a living and sustain themselves in a healthy way. At the end of your stay, you – together with the families – prepare a party to open the new buildings. Come and join us in our efforts to promote sustainable development and economic growth! Be part of a unique movement that collaborates with local people in the fight for a better future!