THE PETER PROJECT

The Peter Project began in early 2013. We named it after St. Peter the Apostle, who was a fisherman before he was called to be a “fisher of men.” The project started as an initiative to provide motorized fishing boats to fisherman’s helpers who were earning only about P50 (a little over $1.00) a day, but had the potential to earn more if they had boats of their own.

After super typhoon Haiyan devastated many parts of the Visayas on November 8, 2013, the project quickly expanded to help fishermen whose boats were destroyed by this disaster. For several typhoons after, we again reached out to fishermen in need. Most recently, we have helped some fishermen and fisherman’s helpers after Typhoon Odette. Through the Peter Project, we were able to help many fishermen reclaim their source of income. We would not have been able to do this without generous donations from individuals, charity groups, local governments, and corporations.

At the start of the project, we took care of manufacturing the boats and gave people livelihood opportunities through this effort. We trained seaside residents how to make the boats and oversaw the operations. Nowadays, we no longer handle the manufacturing process. We have turned over the technology of making motorized fiberglass fishing boats to two of the seaside communities we served. This has allowed them to offer livelihood opportunities to more people in their communities and to run the business on their own.

To this day, we continue to work closely with the fishermen in communities near us. We buy dried fish for community pantries and our food bank directly from them. Since we have eliminated the middleman, the fishermen earn more. They are our partners in the fight against the Covid 19 crisis. Their catch reaches far inland and is served on the tables of those supported by The Feeding Force Project.

Email [email protected] for more information about this project.