The Amen Trust has launched a fundraising initiative to help equip a new school for children living and working on rubbish tips in the Philippines.

The school will be built in the Tondo area of Manila, the capital city, and provide children and their families with a place where they can come to receive an education and learn about the Bible.

The project will be overseen by Amen Trust partner Joe Gonzales, a former drug addict and gang leader who found Christ and became a pastor with a vision to improve the lives of children in the area.

Gonzales and his wife, Beth, have spent several years teaching children and teachers in the Tondo area about the Christian faith.

The new school will serve families and their children living on Smokey Mountain, a vast rubbish tip in Tondo where the waste of millions of people in Manila is dumped every day.

Families living on the rubbish tip are so poor that they and their children are forced to eke out a living by spending hours of their day scavenging through the rubbish for items to sell.

Gonzales explains the vision behind the new school: “The young people in Tondo easily fall prey to the gangster culture, with violence, sex and drugs a routine part of many young lives.

“The centre would offer them a place of safety where they can grow and learn.”

The Amen Trust has pledged to raise £10,000 towards the construction of the school, which will hold a discipleship room, library, prayer room and function room.

The school open from 10am to 9pm daily and offer free lessons in math, the sciences, IT and English, Bible studies and discipleship courses, and provide safe recreational activities. Around 100 children are expected to attend.

Amen Trust founder Gareth Bolton said: “Joe and his wife Beth are faithful witnesses to the love of Jesus in a dark and desperate place. They’ve already shown us what they can do with their existing work in schools, and it’s our desire to help them with this exciting vision for a unique centre for their work.”