The B'laan people are an indigenous community living in the mountain ranges of Southern Mindanao, Philippines.

Access to these villages have always been very challenging as there are no proper roads.

When Riverlifers head over for mission trips, it often takes 3-4 hours of hiking or horseback riding from the nearest town to reach the B'laan people.

Riverlifer Gan & local Pastor Carros

Hiking with a view

With perseverance and God's guidance, Riverlife has been able to plant 13 churches and train up more than 15 pastors who dedicate their lives to serving the B'laan people

Local pastors with Riverlife mission trippers & Ps Rhoda

One of the churches built with the support from Riverlife

Though the church setup is simple, the hearts of the B'laan people are full of passion for Jesus!

Church camp in 2019 organized with help from Riverlife mission trippers

Baptism conducted in the sea during church camp 2019

Since 2019, Riverlife has also been supporting the community in physical needs such as electricity and emergency food provisions. The current COVID-19 situation is especially challenging for the B'laan people due to the loss of livelihood opportunities, lack of ability to afford food, and a serious rat infestation that has destroyed all their remaining crops.

Installation of solar panels by Riverlife

Riverlife has provided a few waves of emergency food relief in 2020 & 2021, but the needs on the ground are still growing. Many of these families are living on just one meal a day. The Missions from Home (MFH) team aims to raise SGD22,400 to provide urgent food & financial relief to the 14 local churches between Sep-Dec 2021.

Distribution of emergency food supply in 2020 & 2021

Besides urgent pandemic needs, the MFH team also learnt that many B'laan youths have not been able to attend secondary school.

The nearest secondary school is in the town 4-hours hike away. This made it very impractical for them to walk 8 hours daily to and fro school.

Having a strong foundation in education is crucial to uplift many B'laan families out of poverty.

B'laan youths at a church gathering

With holistic development in education, spiritual growth, and livelihood skillsets, we believe that B'laan youths can be empowered to be changemakers in their community.

To achieve this, the MFH team decided to launch "Project Breakthrough" - a holistic education program that involves building a dormitory to provide youths with closer access to secondary education. This dorm is to be built within walking distance to the local secondary school so that B'laan youths will be able to attend school conveniently everyday.