RPN’s vision in Montalban Becomes Reality

RPN’s vision in Montalban Becomes Reality

In our last blog[MM1] , we discussed how RPN’s charity efforts in Montalban Landfill have attracted other charitable groups to conduct their own outreach activities to help the landfill's residents.

Beginning 10 February 2024, we are proud to announce that we will once again pioneer another project in the area. This project is close to my heart and the very thing that launched my desire to help the people in that landfill. RPN is bringing water to the residents squatting in the landfill and, in the process, helping the pastor of the local community run a profitable business.

I have been working with the local pastor for the past few months, mentoring him on successfully running a profitable business. I previously mentored the Director of the Nehemiah Centre, which is now a fully accredited NGO (a charitable organisation), and the success of the Nehemiah Centre encouraged me and fuelled me to continue helping others succeed. Our mentoring sessions include drawing up a business plan, balancing the budget, negotiating, and everything else I have learned in the decades I have spent in business.

The pastor has a background in tent making, but my goal is to teach him how to run a profitable business so that he can succeed in whatever endeavour he puts his mind to. I aim to help him become self-sustaining, which he will hopefully pass on to others.

On behalf of RPN, we entered into a contract with the local pastor to loan him some money for the water project. This involves bringing water to the landfill via a big water tank purchased at wholesale price, which the pastor will sell at retail price to the residents. The residents will be able to afford the water through their scavenging activities. This is how residents earn their modest living – scavenging for items in the landfill that they can sell and profit from.

The money raised from the water sales will then be invested back into the business and used towards the monthly outreach that RPN conducts to serve the landfill residents with the help of the boys from the Nehemiah Centre. Our goal is to make this operation self-sufficient and help give the local pastor and his landfill residents a “leg up” in life. In a world where they otherwise wouldn’t get many opportunities and business training and mentorship often cost a lot of money and the right connections, the pastor benefits from my decades of expertise and experience in the business.

My goal in conducting this mentoring program is to teach him the discipline that nothing is free – a valuable lesson that I have personally learned and that has been the driving force in my own success, which I now want to help others attain.

In the long term, the goal of the water project is to wean the landfill community away from relying on outreach and toward earning their livelihood. The funds RPN gives the Pastor, and the profits from the water business will eventually go to livelihood training, such as scholarships for single mothers.

Meanwhile, RPN’s monthly outreach is still going strong, and other charity groups are also coming up with their outreach activities after seeing what we have been doing.

The Nehemiah Centre, RPN’s first charity project, is also expanding and is purchasing more land to house at least two more boys in the future. The boys who the Nehemiah Centre takes in are given shelter, food, education, and vocational training, and these same boys are the frontline volunteers in the landfill outreach once a month. Click here to learn more about the Nehemiah Centre and if you’re interested in donating.

I feel very blessed to witness and experience the seeds we have sown starting to flourish and bear fruit. And I am proud of the part RPN has played and is playing in transforming communities, one life at a time.