(Despite living in poverty in the Philippines, these children flash big grins and peace signs at the camera.)

Saving a nation, one child at a time

By Evangeline Cafe
Northwest Asian Weekly

You can take a girl out of the Philippines, but you can’t take the Philippines out of a girl.

That’s the story of Filipino American Christine Umayam. When she embarked on a family vacation to the Southeast Asian nation in 2006, little did she know that it would change her life forever.

“That trip in January 2006, that was my turning point,” she said.

Malnourished children rummaging through filthy alleyways. Parents faced with the heartbreaking decision to send their children into the workforce instead of school. These were the scenes that tugged at Umayam’s heart and sprung her into action.

“What I saw was a lot of children not having what they need for a better future, and it just kept ringing in my head,” she recounted.

Prior to that trip, Umayam was living the American dream. She had accepted an executive sales position at an Internet marketing firm in Kirkland — one that offered an impressive salary.

Umayam was living the good life, but guilt soon set in.
She said, “It was always just lingering in my mind — what I needed to do in terms of helping. I would have pictures at my desk with me and all these kids, and it just reminded me every day of how grateful I am to have lived the way I have lived.”

The following year, in January, Umayam returned to the Philippines on her own. This time, she wasn’t on a vacation; she was on a mission.

She spent more time observing the impoverished conditions. It hurt her to see children who would probably never experience a college education and thus, whose futures were bleak.

Umayam couldn’t stand it any longer. Within just months of returning back to the States, she quit her job at the Internet marketing firm and tossed her lavish salary out the window.

“I just couldn’t stand what I saw there. I couldn’t live. I just couldn’t go on. I just had to do something. The next day I started Child United,” she said.
Far from the primetime television screens or executive figure salaries, Umayam now spends her days selling Philippine jewelry out of her Lynnwood home and through her Web site, Childunited.org.

Fifty percent of the profits from the items will go directly to needy children and schools in the Philippines. Funding areas include repairing and rebuilding schools; giving scholarships for high school students; granting college scholarships; and providing school supplies and uniforms.

Umayam took a third trip to the country this past June to meet with students and teachers eager to receive help.

This coming March, Umayam will once again return to the Philippines to deliver the first batch of Child United funds and supplies. She hopes this will be the first of many special deliveries

“I want to provide them at least with the basic necessities so their parents don’t have to sacrifice their children’s future just so they could live,” she said. “My vision is to expand. My goal is just to help as many kids as possible."

Umayam hopes more people will buy her jewelry, and give impoverished children in the Philippines a fighting chance.

“I want them to be educated professionals supporting their families, and having hope. And that’s the important thing: hope,” she said. “A lot of these kids live without hope. If we could get the next generation to live with hope, it’ll change many lives.

“If you could get every child education, you would literally help a country revolutionize itself. There would be more thinkers, more professionals, and more of a way to say, ‘Poverty’s got to end.’”

For more information on Christine Umayam and Child United, visit www.childunited.org.

Evangeline Cafe can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.