About 5 years ago, Phil directed/produced the award winning documentary "Glue Boys" (available for purchase to your right). The film highlights the everyday lives of 6 homeless boys in Kenya, and shares the history behind the youths' addiction to inhalants such as shoe glue, gasoline and brake fluid, as a method of survival.
As the film was shown to various audiences, one constant question was "what can we do to help?". Phil would direct those interested to various organizations around the world who cared for vulnerable children, though was not satisfied with that being enough.
So in 2008, with family and friends the organization Until Then was born. The purpose of Until Then is:
And the way we attain this is by having conversations."Until Then is dedicated to raising awareness about the issues of street children. Our mission is to open the minds and hearts of people all over the world so as to engage them in action to bring hope and help to the forgotten street children of the world. We will dream of a day when all children have homes and families and will work for this reality 'Until Then'.”
One of Phil's past jobs was with DC Shoes and he frequently shared his passion of fighting injustice. Years later an old colleague called him up who was starting a shoe company and asked Phil for advice on doing projects that benefited the poor. It was through this conversation that Until Then's partnership with Freewaters began, and how we do clean water projects.
Until Then is not a fundraising organization, though when people donate money 100% of goes to projects that help street kids. We focus on three areas of helping street kids: prevention, intervention and rehabilitation. We do this by advocating and creating awareness, as well as through partner projects.
Until Then is run by volunteers who equally believe that projects helping street kids should be self sustainable, and so we partner with organizations, churches and corporations to achieve that. The end result of any of our projects is that a vulnerable child is better of today than they were yesterday.
Ever Hopeful,
Dalene
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