Some of life’s most fundamental needs such as shelter, education, clean water, and security are sources of risk and instability for many people. PhaseTwoCebu’s work is focused around meeting the needs of people in Cebu in four distinct areas.
to BUILD homes
to CREATE libraries
to PROVIDE scholarships
to SUPPORT communities
Connecting with communities.
One scholar at a time. One book at a time. One house at a time.
We invite you to consider how your passions align with these areas of focus. You can visit our Donate & Engage page to get involved.
Working with people…
As a way of responding to Christ’s command to care for others, PhaseTwoCebu™ was founded on the principle of helping individuals and families with these fundamental needs. By removing obstacles in these areas, we are able to help them possibly change the course of events in life and set them on a path for improvement. We are careful not to create a dependency but instead come in with targeted assistance that can solve a problem or create the opportunity for change.
To Build Homes
PhaseTwoCebu has been building homes for individuals and families in Cebu since 2019. PhaseTwoCebu as an organization grew out of a previous housing project we were involved in with Habitat for Humanity–Philippines and Habitat for Humanity–Minnesota. To date, we have built homes for employees of the Children’s Shelter of Cebu, a child-caring agency in Cebu. Home ownership creates stability for families, as the opportunity to own land and a home can be virtually insurmountable. Without this stability, the risk of missing work, unstable burdens of renting, and even the risk of homelessness are very real issues in the socio-political climate of the Philippines. Receiving a home creates a multi-generational lift that provides stability for generations to come. PhaseTwoCebu’s model for low-income housing is providing subsidized houses with recipients contributing sweat equity and taking on a manageable mortgage.
Houses completed so far:
- 5 row houses
- 1 single family house
Goal for 2025: 6 row houses
To Create Libraries
Children in schools and communities in Cebu have almost no books to read and enjoy. There are very few public libraries or functioning school libraries, so creating small libraries fills a vacuum for schools and communities. Public education in the Philippines is in English even though students in Cebu speak Visayan at home. Therefore, sending books in English fulfills a real need. Since 2019, PhaseTwoCebu has shipped more than 100,000 books to Cebu and created 75 small libraries for schools and communities. PhaseTwoCebu also conducts workshops in the areas of reading comprehension and library management for teachers and librarians.
Goals for 2025:
- 27,000 books
- 5 sites
To Provide Scholarships
The PhaseTwoCebu scholarship program provides financial support for students who would otherwise be unable to attend college. This support includes tuition, books, daily living expenses, and a laptop. In addition, our program employs a social worker to assist with the program and provides a mentor for each scholarship recipient. Recipients must apply to our scholarship program and are chosen through a selection process by our Scholarship Committee in Cebu. Scholarship students choose the program and school they would like to attend. Our scholarship students are usually the first person in their family to attend college. Average annual expense per scholar is $2,000. Currently, scholars are in nursing, hospitality management, criminology, elementary and secondary education, mechanical engineering, mathematics, and English literature programs.
Current number of scholars: 14
Graduates in 2025: 2
To Support Communities
PhaseTwoCebu responds to requests for assistance with local community initiatives. These initiatives are ones which are sustainable by the local community, but which need some assistance to get them off the ground, or occasional help to fulfill a specific need. Current local initiatives we are supporting include digging a well, two reading tutorial programs, and a community sewing program as a source of income for participants.