The annual Japan Time Readers' Fund has helped a variety of nonprofit organizations work to improve education and living conditions in developing countries. This article and a subsequent one will attempt to explain how the donations have been used.

By TOMOKO OTAKE Staff writer The case summary of 9-year-old Filipino Joey F. Tongcua compiled by a local social worker reveals the dire poverty he is in now. It also offers a glimmer of hope that he might someday rise above it.

Tongcua, who appears short and skinny in his file photo, lives in the slums of Muntinlupa, a city south of Manila.