The Purple Centres Foundation was established in March 2003 as “The Philippine Christian Foundation” by British national Jane Walker, who had been privately funding projects for children and families living in the Navotas public cemetery and the Pier 18 dumpsite near the old Smokey Mountain dumpsite in Tondo, Manila. Jane also established a U.K.-based charity to help fund the new organization she was starting in the Philippines. Today, that U.K.-based charity is known as the Purple Community Fund and continues to give its support in the Philippines.
Families in Tondo, in Metro Manila, tend to live in condemned buildings, poorly maintained public housing, under bridges, and in huts built over water with little or no sanitation or safe drinking water. Most of the 70,000 people living in these communities depend on garbage sorting for recyclables for income. Even after the infamous Smokey Mountain dump site was officially closed by the government, garbage has continued to be dumped in a nearby, lesser-known, unsanitary dump site. Children are unfortunately an important part of the labour force and drop out from school or have no access at all to education and, in many cases, are malnourished and at risk of abuse.
The Purple Centres is headquartered in Tondo, Manila, beside the old Smokey Mountain dump site. The Tondo centre hosts a private school for uniquely disadvantaged children and youth in the surrounding community. Space is also dedicated to students in their growing public school sponsorship program, which includes a new “Saturday School” for tutorials, arts, and activities. The centre offers a library, computer lab, science lab, and studios for art, dance, and music.