From slum girl to charity chairperson
A year ago, Julie Goodfellow won the UM Student Award for the inspiring work she does with her Goodfellow Foundation. How is she doing now and how has she spent the €1000 cash award? While growing up in a slum in the Philippines, Julie dreamed about studying at a university. As of the age of 10, she finally started school, thanks to the intervention of a charity foundation. Being top of her class, she was given the opportunity to go to college and study at a Dutch university. Years later, she became the chairperson of what’s now known as the Goodfellow Foundation, and her commitment to its cause earned her the award.
Founded in 2000, the organisation, called Joana Foundation at the time, decided to sponsor charity work at Garita Elementary School in the Philippines. “We were lucky they chose our school, where they helped 50 children to go to school. I was one of them,” Julie Goodfellow says. The charity paid the monthly allowances as well as the school uniforms. “I come from a squatters’ area, a slum area, my parents didn’t have a job. I lived there until I was 19.”
Julie gets emotional as she tells her story. “I always knew there was something outside my neighbourhood. I saw it. I also saw my friends getting pregnant at a very young age and their boyfriends leaving them with a baby and no chance to support themselves. I saw this and thought ‘Okay, this has to stop and it should start with me.’ I’m the first in my family to be able to go to college and go abroad. It’s bizarre, surreal… I’m really thankful for all the people I’ve met, especially my foster parents [This is what Julie calls the charity’s founder and his wife]. They were in the audience when I won the award.”
“My foster parents rented a house for me when I went to college,” Julie recalls with tears in her eyes. “I had never had a bed before and I was used to sleeping on the floor, but on my 19th birthday they bought me a bed. During the first couple of nights, I continued lying on the floor and just looked at it… This was 10 years ago…. It’s really amazing what has happened to me since.” Julie weeps. Her tears are tears of happiness, she says.
Julie visiting the San Roque Parish Church.
Julie and her foster partents
The slum area where Julie was born and raised.
The slum area where Julie was born and raised.
I have been very fortunate and blessed to have received financial help by the Joana Foundation and other generous people. With their help I managed to complete secondary school in the Philippines in 2006, they also financed my college fees in the Philippines, and eventually in the Netherlands, where I just finished my Master’s Degree at Maastricht University.
Pursuing her dream
“After high school, I simply asked my foster parents if there was any possibility that they could financially support my college education.” They did, because of her excellent grades. “I was the second best of the 300 students in my elementary school and later also the second best of the 1000 students at my high school. They also saw that I wanted to make a difference and help my family.”
Knowing she had to leave her family and friends behind for a long time, Julie decided to pursue her dream and grasped the chance to study in the Netherlands, where she successfully graduated from Utrecht University before taking her master’s degree at Maastricht University. Today, she works as Student Recruitment Adviser at the Marketing and Communications office of the School of Business and Economics (SBE).
Julie doesn’t fly back home often. The first time she returned to the Philippines was after six years, the second time was this spring. She has bought a house for her parents, older sister and younger brother, accomplishing one of her dreams. “We have very close family ties. They were super overwhelmed. It’s just a start. In the Philippines, you spend your complete salary; people want to have instant gratification, they don’t save money. They live by the day.” While reflecting on her life story, she bursts out laughing. “And this is only a short version. It’s amazing. My life is like a telenovela, a soap opera!”, she adds with a big smile on her face.
How can I pay you back?
“I asked my foster parents, ‘How can I pay you back?’ They said, ‘We don’t need your money’. I always knew I would take over the Foundation at some point as it was named after my surname. With a mission to help young women who have the drive and motivation to reach their dreams, just like I did. Help their family get out of poverty. They found that amazing. So I started with helping in 2015.
“I work together with the San Roque Parish Church. They do the background checks of the young girls we want to help and they check if the money is well spent. The students have to send in a motivational letter and tell their life story. We select them after high school at the age of 17 or 18. I just finished the exciting process of checking out the applications and admitted three more students, these girls just started studying at Cavite State University, a public university in Cavity City, 30 km from Manila. We pay everything for them: tuition fees, projects and living costs. Students cost 450 euros per year.”
Grateful for the opportunities given to her, Julie wanted to give something back, not only to the foundation but especially to the girls in her old neighbourhood. Acutely aware of the gender inequality and women’s disadvantaged position in the Philippines, Julie decided to try and empower young women, to educate them and help them develop themselves, and so she became the chairperson of the Goodfellow Foundation. The thriving charity now sponsors seven female students enabling them to study at a university in the Philippines. Two just graduated in August 2019 and are now in search for a decent job. “Educating and supporting young women from the slums CAN make a difference”, Julie stresses.
They are doing amazing!
While visiting her parents this spring, she also went to see ‘her pupils’. “They’re doing amazing! I asked them about their future plans, and some of them were already looking for a job. One girl wants to go abroad and another one wants to get a license to work for the government or work as a teacher. Two girls are into information technology and business management. We absolutely change their lives! When living in a slum, you only think, ‘Do I have something to eat today?’ Now they are looking into the future, saying: ’I want to do this, earn money, help my brothers and sisters to follow the same path’. Hopefully, the cycle will be broken with all this.”
There still needs a lot to be done
“Of course, I have used the prize that I won by sponsoring one student who is taking up a BSc Business Management major in Marketing. I also have direct sponsors who donate money every month. My friends at Utrecht University are helping me organise fundraising events and stuff like that. Some sponsors pay once, others monthly. There’s no contract. Our foundation isn’t organised like a big foundation. We don’t get any salary, the money goes directly to the girls. If I take a decision, I must have to consult the other two board members. They have to agree.”
Every six months, the girls need to write a story about how they perform, about their progress and what they have learned. “They don’t need to be worried about failing their exams. We agreed to support them for four years. We tell them they can also learn from their failures. We teach them not to give up. I was always the best in the Philippines, but here, I was one of the worst students, as I noticed the gap in the education level and have experienced a culture shock when I just arrived in the Netherlands. When I did fail the first two courses in the first semester of my first year, my sponsors helped me not to give up. They said, ‘This isn’t the Julie we know, you will not give up’"
"This is only the beginning; there still needs a lot to be done! Even a small donation has a major effect on the lives of the girls.”
Want to help?
"As a donor you will receive regular updates on the progress of the studies and also have the possibility to stay connected beyond the university time to see the change unfold in the life of your students." To give you some orientation: one week of education costs about €10, two months of education, transportation and living costs about €50 euros and half a year of education, transportation and living costs about €200.
Goodfellow Foundation
Bank Account Number:
IBAN: NL 75 RABO 0125 3967 16
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