Today I wanna endorse and congratulate a true hero, someone who in his life has given so much unconditional love and care that he deserves to be put in the spotlight. Let his story help you learn a little about humility and achieving a greater vision, not by dreaming but doing the work.
Juergen Schneidt is the visionary leader of the Kinderhilfe children's village in Southern Leyte - Padre Burgos.
Juergen took it on himself in 1986 to start a children's village for orphans, disabled, physically or sexually abused and needy children. He left his cushy job at the ZDF (a German media company) to start a mission to help the young children of the Philippines. 32 years later, he's still spearheading this operation and is probably the happiest 80-year-old with his 100+ children.
The first time I visited Kinderhilfe I was amazed by what I saw. The German grundligkeit was clearly visible even though Juergen was operating in a tiny little fishing village of the beaten track. In my first visit in 2011, I was greeted and welcomed with warm hands from the children who loved living there. I've never seen a place with more smiles and genuine interest from those children in hearing your stories about far-off lands.
In the community, the children live, in separate houses inside a 'little village'. Where they are equally divided in age, sex, and personal responsibilities. All of them live in a household, including a mother who takes care of them and ensures a loving surrounding. The older ones help maintain the cleanliness of the house and are assigned tasks to help their mothers. The children are provided safety, security, education, daily meals, medical care and a basic understanding of life skills they can bring on in their own adult lives.
Juergen started off the Kinderhilfe project because he had learned the hard way that his 50 Deutsch mark (about 25€) hardly reached the child it was intended for. In the 80's he tried to get in contact with the child from Leyte he was sponsoring for many years. The organization withheld his request and wouldn't let him contact the child directly. So Juergen took upon himself and went on a road trip from Maasin (+-30 Kms from Padre Burgos) on a motorcycle stopping every once and a while asking the locals if they knew the kid in his picture. After 3 days on his motorcycle, he finally found someone who knew 'his' child. And he learned that the majority of what he spent only 2 Deutsch mark reached the child he sponsored. That also taught him why the organization wasn't that cooperative in the first place.
After learning his he went to his employer (ZDF) and asked to start a mission to help the impoverished village of Padre Burgos. In 1985 he started to organize the donations to set up a foundation with the sole purpose: helping Philippine children without overhead costs. In 1986 Juergen and his wife traveled down to the Philippines to make this a reality. 32 years later, he still is 'father' to his 100 children. Including the many projects, he runs in and around his area in Southern Leyte. If you travel down there you'll see medical centers, blood banks, barangay health centers, birth clinics, public toilets and many more uplifting projects with his stamp on it.
One of the most heartbreaking moments is when Juergen explained what was his biggest problem in operating the village. Besides the children, he has good standing with most hospitals in Maasin, Ormoc, and Cebu. Where he managed to get doctors to work, operate and care for free. Helping people with harelips, heart problems, deformed growth, and any other medical variety you can imagine from a rural underdeveloped region.
The Kinderhilfe foundation helps those in need by offering them the access to medical service and paying for their trips, meals and other expenses they endure while undergoing free medical treatment. But Juergen's main problem was, he has to literally kick dying people of his front steps because he lacks the funds to help them. Even though he has access to all these wonderful doctors volunteering he can't bring those in need due to minor expenses involved.
This bothers him more than even his wife leaving him, another attest that this man has a mission to fulfill greater than himself. His wife, at a point in their lives in Leyte, left back to Germany. Juergen decided to stay, his mission wasn't finished yet. Imagine that, your loving relationship going back to your home country and you keeping your foot on the ground just to help. Help children that aren't even yours, help people you owe nothing. This showed me that Juergen is a true modern day hero.
Happy 80th Birthday Juergen! May you have 80 years more to come.
For donations, you can contact the organization directly or sent me Crypto's and i'll ensure they come in the right hands.
BTC: 3L9yPJq3ad2QqwLVp5kQNkz2mNM7KUV5hY
ETH: 0x4EDFcb0a3fc827396afD98bef92A3E9eEBc5aa67
You can find updates on Kinderhilfe (in German) on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/KinderHilfePhilippinen