Latest Ruel Foundation News

Brookfield Primary students give Maria an early birthday present. The students at Brookfield Primary school held a mufti day last Friday to raise money for an operation for a child, Maria Pastrana, in the Philippines.   Linking up with the Ruel Foundation, the students raised $400 for Maria to have the cleft lip surgery that she so desperately needs. "Maria will be 5 years old on 22nd May so  ... Ruel Foundation comes to Auckland! The Ruel Foundation will be having a  two day stand in New World, Victoria Park this coming weekend. We will be available on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th April from 9am to 9pm at the store located on 2 College Hill, Freemans Bay, Auckland. Please come by to find out more about the Ruel Foundation or to pick up a child sponsorship  ... UNO Magazine Feature Article This Autumn Issue 12 we are the feature article in the Bay of Plenty lifestyle magazine - UNO. Entitled 'Compassion is a Choice' we are making known the needs of children who have largely been forgotten. Interviews and pictures highlight the needs of our children in a very thought provoking way.  ... The courageous story of baby Joshua What can we say except a massive thank you to Matt, Suzie and Oceana who thought of us at the time of their own loss of little baby Joshua? Joshua who was born 7 Jan 2008. Joshua has an encephalocele - a neural tube defect - that has left a hole in his skull. His brain has grown out through the back of the skull into a membrane-covered sack.   ... Easter Chocolate Hunt Fun Day! On Saturday 15th March we had gorgeous weather to host the Easter Chocolate Hunt down in Gideon's Valley in collaboration with Cool Bananas. Children from across Tauranga Primary Schools were invited to join us in a fun day hunting for hidden markers across the Valley which they could trade for chocolate back at base! Both parents and  ... Music in the Valley Inaugural Concert On Saturday 8th  March we held the very first outdoor concert at the natural ampitheatre of Gideons Heights. The evening brought us great weather, worship led by the Marine Reach DTS and a fantastic show from Limit Break a dacting group who travelled from Auckland to perform.  A wonderful event with youth groups from across  ... Concert Success Teresa Michalina, singer-songwriter visited New Zealand to hold a benefit concert for the Ruel Foundation.  The concert was a huge success, an evening enjoyed by all who attended. Several thousands of dollars were raised through ticket and merchandise sales whilst publicizing the cause of the Foundation.  ... One Youth BBQ - details and directions MARCH 8th - 4.30PM GIDEON'S VALLEY - OROPI TAURANGA Valley opens 4pm . Event starts - 4.30pm until 8.00pm DIRECTIONS FROM TAURANGA   Come out of Tauranga and get onto Fraser Street, heading towards Oropi/ Greerton   At little roundabout go straight on and down the hill (playing fields on left at bottom of hill)   At  ... Music in the Valley - Michalina Concert Teresa Michalina, USA recording artist and song-writer also a Ruel Foundation ambassador will be singing at a special fundraising concert at Gideon's Valley.  We will also have the privilege of hearing from Pauline Curtis-Smith, the director of Ruel Foundation Philippines, whilst enjoying the natural beauty of the Valley. This lovely,  ... New 'Children's Crisis Centre' planned for the Philippines Thanks to generous donations received throughout NZ and the USA,  $30,000 (US) has been raised to purchase property beside the existing Ruel House for the purpose of building a two storey Children's Crisis Centre. The crisis centre will hold approximately 20 beds for children who have just completed surgery for a physical deformity or  ... PJ and Associates Help Out A Tauranga based consulting firm decided that this Christmas they would make a difference by making a substancial donation to help a child in a developing nation who was without hope. John Mazo is 10 years old and comes from a family of six in the Philippine Islands. His parents could not afford to pay for his surgery for a double cleft  ... Southland schools do it again Another 4 Southland schools have signed up to help Ruel Foundation kids by having some sort of fund raising event in their school. The pictures below are on a Crazy Hair Day in Glenham school.  ... Wonderful People I have recently spent 5 days with the wonderful people at the Ruel House in Calapan City in the Philippines and was deeply moved by the experience. I am still processing this life changing time! I had the chance to visit  a Manyan tribe and to go out on a medical outreach. I have the deepest admiration for the people that I met.  ... Sleepless Nights! One thing I have found with this ministry is that sometimes you have “sleepless nights”. Two weeks ago a very desperate Grandmother arrived at Ruel House with three children aged 2, 3 and 4.  She asked us if we would take her 3 grandchildren. Their father was in prison for murder and their mother had left them. She  ... Big night out in Guildford raises Lots of money. The Ruel Foundation would really like to thank Jonathan Veira and his family for their amazing fund raising concert which raised over 4000 English pounds (about $US 8000)! The venue where it was held was completely packed out - they literally ran out of chairs. A big thank you to Jonathan, Sue, Matt, Danny and Nick for lending us their amazing  ... The Veira's Big Night Out in Guildford Jonathan Veira is an internationally acclaimed bass baritone opera singer, performing with various companies including Glyndebourne, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and The Royal Danish Opera Company. In this concert, (12th Sept at St Saviour's church, Guildford, UK) he will be teaming up with his equally talented family for a highly  ... The Smile Train Sponsors More Kids. The Smile Train organisation  is sponsoring 21 more children in partnership with the Ruel Foundation. These children come from relatively isolated areas on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. The Smile Train helps hundreds of children around the world each year and has  now sponsored 32 children in partnership with the Ruel Foundation.  ... Bethlehem College Primary supports Jan Paulo On Friday 17th August Bethlehem College Primary school held a mufti day to raise funds for jan Paulo Fabregas to have his life changing surgery. The mufti day itself raised $770 and then some enterprising individuals raised another $100 over the weekend by selling cakes and bisuits they had made. This was an incredible effort by a single  ... Ruel Ball a big success The Ruel Midwinter charity ball on Saturday night was a huge success, raising in excess of $9,000 for the children. We would really like to thank all those who played such a big part in making it happen including Kelly and Mel from the Sunrise Cafe, Hamish from the Naked Grape, Frank Vosper, the team at the Olive Tree cottage, Sasha for  ... A little boys dying wish While visiting the public hospital this week I met Mark. Mark has terminal cancer. He is the third child out of four in the one family to have leukemia. His family have decided to stop treatment. The Ruel Foundation doesn't treat cancer but how can you turn away? We have some students staying with us at the moment so they are going to  ... Dimaala boys go home! Renmark and Roland have now gone home. Because they were both malnourished we sent them home with cans of milk powder to help them recover from their operations. The picture is our field worker Marvin teaching the Mum how to mix the milk powder. They cannot afford to drink milk. Both boys will have another operation in 6 months to correct  ... Christopher's Contribution Dear Mr Cowie, I want to give you $50.00 for the Ruel Foundation. I made money by building a shed with my Papa  during the holidays and selling it. In church when you spoke I felt sad when you talked about the kids needing help, so I wanted to give some money to help with some operations. One day I might go and help the kids in  ... Ruel Charity Ball - 7.7.07 Put this date in your diaries now! On 7th July the Ruel Foundation will be holding a fundraising ball to be held at Olive Tree Cottage in Pyes Pa, Tauranga. More details to follow - watch this space.  ... Chadie's gone home! Seven months ago I saw Chadie lying in the corridor of our local hospital very near to dying due to malnutrition     (you can see his photo on "Our successes" page.) His parents agreed that we could look after him until he was in a healthy state. He was two years old but couldn't talk, walk or chew. Now 7  ... Lito Yesterday, our Ruel Foundation representative in the Philippines went to the Mangyan tribe to visit the father of one of our Ruel kids, Ryan. When she got there she was shown this liitle boy by the tribal people. This alone is a privilege as they are very private, shy people. They wanted our help. After some deliberation and with  ... Donation Boxes do their thing. We want to say a big thank you to all our donation box partners around Tauranga and the Mount area in new Zealand. Since Christmas we have placed over 60 boxes in a wide range of different shops and businesses and have raised over $2000 in just a few months. Thank you to everyone who's supported us in this way and keep up the good work. (For  ... The Smile Train Last year The Smile Train donated $5000.00 to the Ruel Foundation for children with cleft lip and palates in the Philippines. Eleven children have now received their initial surgeries with several  waiting to complete their cleft palate surgeries in March 07. Children like James (Photo) were treated thanks to The Smile Train's  ... Concert Raises over $1500! Thank you to all those who came and were wowed by the amazing vocal talents of Teresa Michalina. The evening was a great success and many hope for a repeat performance sometime later in the year when they can bring their friends and family - watch this space! The concert made over $1500 - a great effort. Special thanks to the Elim  ... Lily makes a fashion statement For nearly a year now the Ruel Foundation has been working with a little girl from a isolated tribe on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Over the last few months our team has taken Lily to Manila every three weeks to get her foot straightened. After months of having her foot in a cast she has now received her new boots - and is so proud!   ... New Van for the Ruel Foundation Colbi Technologies (a software computer company in LA that provides software for the funding and building of schools in the USA) donated $US5000.00 for the purchase of a 4X4 van. The van is being used to transport medical teams and collect children from isolated villages on Mindoro Island in the Philippines.   We deeply  ... NZ Construction Team Renovates Ruel House In October '06 a special construction team from New Zealand spent two weeks at the Ruel House in the Philippines renovating the children's ward. Brian Dillon, Todd Wakerley and Brian Thompson refurbished the up-stairs children's accomodation. They made storage room, changing tables, installed and pumbed in a sink and installed a  ... Up-date on Irish Irish has now been in our care for six months and is doing fine. She was given into our care six months ago by the local health authorities in Calapan City, Philippines after been found close to death from starvation.  She is now being processed for adoption.  Thank you to all those who sent funds for milk powder.  ... Milk Powder Project With the growing number of children coming to the Ruel House in the Philippines the demand for milk powder is growing. We have now launched a special appeal for funds for this special, vitamin enriched powder for these seriously under-nourished children.  Ryan (photo) refused to eat after his mother died and his father brough him to  ... Jelly Beans for Lily Recently, Hanna Jairam from Napier, New Zealand wanted to help Lily  get her operation for her club foot. She filled a jar with jelly beans and charged her friends and family $1.00 to guess the number of jelly beans in the jar. She raised an astonishing $635.00 dollars for the operation! Well done Hanna!  ... New "Ruel House" for the Philippines The Ruel Foundation recently purchased a 4000 sq ft hone in Calapan City  to accomodate children who need medical attention before and after surgery. Mother and child can now stay at our "Ruel House" for up to two weeks to ensure the child is of sufficent weight and strength to have the operation and to provide a safe enviroment  ...