10 years of sailing with Yellow Boat of Hope

by Elton Gagni / November 4, 2020

Outreach programs are some of the easiest ways to help different communities. In the Philippines, many communities who are part of the marginalized sector continue to struggle. With organizations like the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, life indeed is a little more hopeful for these communities, especially the children.

The Red Circle has had the opportunity to interview Chief Hope Paddler Doc Anton Lim, who shared the humble beginnings of Yellow Boat as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Before setting the first sail

A practicing veterinary surgeon, Anton Mari H. Lim, or Doc Anton as many know him, started helping the less fortunate as early as he can remember — from his own family shelling out resources to help workers, neighbors and even strangers, to him helping out calamity victims and farmers during his time in school.

After getting his license as a vet, he tried working in the US but felt homesick. Thus, he came back home and became part of the Rotary Club of Zamboanga City, where he was even able to have his own clinic and the city’s first one. “During that time, people didn’t bring their pets to the vet.  My clinic was the first one in the city and I had to educate the people on why they need to seek professional help. I am happy to be able to help pet owners and farmers with their livestock and farm animals,” shared Doc Anton.

Having a medical background, he was always tasked to organize medical and surgical missions for the Rotary Club and this included working with the Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines when they visited Zamboanga City. Witnessing how passionate and dedicated the leaders and medical workers were in helping their community, Doc Anton found his calling and even established the foundation’s local chapter.

The maiden voyage

The story behind the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation and the very first yellow boat started when volunteer Juljimar Gonzalez shared with Jay Jaboneta, who later co-founded the foundation with Doc Anton, how kids swam to school, paddling with one hand while the other held a plastic bag filled with their school supplies and uniform. Bothered by what he had heard, Jay shared it with Doc Anton who was equally disturbed. Jay then posted it on his Facebook. The post went viral and in a week’s time, they were able to gather PHP 70,000 from the donations.

With the money at hand, he sought to find Layag-Layag, a village in Zamboanga where the said kids were seen swimming to school. Riding in a banca, Doc Anton saw the area and realized that there was indeed no way of going to school without wading through the water in the absence of a boat, especially during high tide. With a boat costing PHP 130,000, the Tzu Chi Foundation shouldered the remaining PHP 60,000 and the first ever yellow boat was turned over and made its maiden voyage on October 30, 2010.

Doc Anton shared that they painted the boat yellow because they wanted it to resemble the color of a school bus. During the turnover ceremony, both Doc Anton and Jay noticed that there was a need for more and so it stemmed to six more motor boats and hundreds of self-paddling boats.

With the Layag-Layag community having a renewed sense of hope, another community sitio Mababoy sought Doc Anton and Jay’s help as kids would literally swim from islet to islet to reach the main island of Guinhadap. From a simple yellow boat project, a new foundation was born — The Yellow Boat of Hope.

Sailing through time

After their second community gained much attention from the media, many more communities reached out, and so the boat continued to sail. With the opportunities they were able to present, more parents wanted more kids in school. However, Doc Anton noted that students were dropping out after a few months — they needed to help their parents with their livelihoods, lacked school supplies, frequently absent due to sickness from malnutrition, and even as simple as being unprepared intellectually and emotionally.

“We realized that safe access was not enough. So, we went into provision of school supplies, feeding, scholarships, medical and dental mission, helping their parents with their livelihood and establishing day care centers to prepare the kids for Kinder. What was supposed to be a one yellow boat project became what it is now. It is continually a work in progress.”

Doc Anton proudly shared that at Layag Layag, although they were able to graduate college kids who were the first in the community to do so, a lot more needed to be done.

Commemorating 10 years of sailing

Last October 30, 2020, Yellow Boat of Hope celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding and first boat turnover. From one community, they now have over 200 yellow boat communities and adopted schools nationwide from Zambales in the north to Sulu down south. “We have invested so much to address physical access, not to mention the efforts that the kids give and the sacrifices of the parents to send them to school. We need to reward [their efforts and sacrifices] with quality education by making sure the schools are also helped.”

Reflecting on their 10-year journey, Doc Anton shared some memorable community interactions. He recalled that after one of their turnovers at Mababoy, he saw a kid carrying a family size Pepsi and running towards a tattered shack. He followed the kid and was welcomed by the family. To his surprise, he saw the father pouring the soft drink over a basin full of rice before they started eating together with their hands. Doc Anton realized that the Pepsi wasn’t for drinking, it was to add flavor to their rice since they didn’t have any viand. “I carry that memory and it constantly reminds me not to be quick in judging people because we don’t know the full circumstance and the journey they are experiencing. It was a life lesson for me.”

A common encounter he would often have during their visits is when they asked the kids what their dream was, their response would always be to eat Chickenjoy or at Jollibee. Every time they went back, they would ask Jollibee to sponsor a meal to fulfill this dream of the kids and enable them to dream bigger. But it didn’t stop there. Doc Anton explained that upon getting their Chickenjoys, kids would only take a bite and keep the rest. When asked why, they would only say that it was for their siblings and parents, so that they, too, can eat Jollibee.

“What love, empathy, generosity and compassion from a child. That is why when people praise me for what we do, I sincerely tell them that I got more from the community compared to what we gave them and therefore, I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” shared Doc Anton.

To date, Yellow Boat has already donated 4,809 boats, with 12 Yellow schools of hope and classrooms, 5 Yellow Dorms of Hope, 2 Yellow Bridge of Hope, 1 Yellow Boat adventure community with 25 yellow boats benefitting over 35,000 kids.

There is no doubt that there are many more communities across the country that are in need of assistance, moreso now with the restrictions posed by the pandemic. But thanks to organizations like Yellow Boat of Hope, life is indeed a little more hopeful.

Join Yellow Boat of Hope’s Support Our Schools Project and become a partner to donate different devices and equipment that are useful to education in the now normal. To learn more about the project, visit their Facebook page. For donations, head on to https://www.yellowboat.org/donate.