Food & Water
The most urgent need — making sure students and staff have reliable access to meals and clean drinking water.
Iloilo, Philippines
Everyday essentials for kids at Naborot Carles Elementary
JD Foundation is a new nonprofit raising support from donors abroad so one small school has the basics it needs — food, water, supplies and power.
Our mission
JD Foundation exists to help meet the everyday needs of students and teachers at Naborot Carles Elementary School in Iloilo. We keep it simple and direct: understand what the school actually needs, tell those stories honestly, and get the support there.
Right now, the school needs
School Supplies & Uniforms
Notebooks, pens, and other basic materials, plus uniforms for students who need them.
Power — More Solar Panels
The whole school currently runs on a single solar panel. More capacity means reliable lighting and power for classrooms.
Straight from Naborot Carles
A message sent to us by the teachers and children at the school.
Captions are on by default — use the CC button in the player to turn them off.
Transcript
A written version of the message in the video above.
The ocean is both a provider and a prison. It yields the day’s meals, yet its vastness isolates the island from the relentless hum of modern progress and the mainland. Here, time is measured not by digital clocks, but by the shifting of the tide and the position of the sun. To understand the school, you must first understand the shore.
Poverty here is as pervasive as the salt in the air. For the families on this island, survival is wrested from the sea. Fathers and older brothers set out in small wooden bangkas long before dawn, casting nets into the dark waters. And the livelihood is brutally unpredictable.
At the heart of this remote fishing community stands a modest structure of weathered wood and hollow block. It is not just a building — it is the island’s soul. This is the island school, a sanctuary of learning where 92 grade-school learners and 22 day-care children gather each morning, defying the heavy gravity of their circumstances.
For the 92 elementary learners, the act of showing up is a daily triumph. Many walk to school in worn-out slippers, their uniforms faded by harsh laundry soap and the relentless sun. Some come to class with only a cup of black coffee or watered-down rice porridge in their bellies.
Naburot faces a quiet, daily crisis: fresh water is scarce. There are no flowing rivers, no deep wells. When the clouds gather, they bring hope, and life relies on what falls from the sky and is caught drop by drop.
In the classroom, there are not just fishers’ children — there are explorers, mathematicians, and dreamers. The teachers who travel hours across open water, bringing their own meager supplies from the mainland, serve as their only bridge to a world beyond the horizon.
This island school is a testament to an uncomfortable truth: brilliance and potential are distributed equally, but resources and opportunities are not. These children are running in the shadow of the 21st century. Yet despite the lack of screens, power lines, and paved roads, the school remains the brightest place on the island.
When the children are asked what they want to be when they grow up, their dreams are fiercely practical — born not from fantasy, but from a deep, aching desire to fix what is broken in their world.
The children then answer in their local language, Hiligaynon. One by one, they share their hopes: to become a police officer, a nurse, a doctor. And when asked why, the answer is always the same — to help their families.
Where the sea gives life, and the sky sustains it.
Give to the school
Every gift goes toward meals, clean water, supplies and solar power at Naborot Carles Elementary School. Our donation platform is being set up now — reach out and we'll let you know the moment it's live.
Get in touch about donating