While most of us take the gift of literacy for granted, it is shocking to learn that illiteracy affects nearly 17% of adults worldwide – the vast majority of them women, according to UNESCO. September 8, 2016, marks the 50th anniversary of International Literacy Day and aims to actively promote literacy as an instrument to...

Isabel Khoo gave many children in need a huge gift the day she had her sixth birthday party. The young girl decided she wanted to partner with Twopresents.com, a Hong Kong based social enterprise that allows party organizers to ask guests to contribute to both a gift and a charity. Isabel chose International Care Ministries...

For over 20 years, Conchita lived with a cyst on her neck that distrupted her sleep and caused discomfort. The local midwife in Conchita’s village warned her against overworking, which meant Conchita needed to pare back the hours she spent washing clothes to earn money. Forced to rely on her husband’s unstable fishing income to...

Elena and her family of six live in a house without electricity, and collect their water from a small well several hundred feet away. Her husband, Jose, has been unable to work after suffering a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side of his body. Elena contributed to the family’s income by burning wood to...

Dengue fever is a recurring problem in the Philippines as the country has one of the highest dengue infection rates in the Western Pacific region.  In 2015, the Philippines saw more than 100,000 cases recorded. Augustin, at just 12 years old, was one of them. Augustin was in desperate need of a blood transfusion of fresh frozen...

After leaving her abusive ex-husband, Ellen thought she’d have to raise her two young daughters alone. The future looked gloomy and hopeless. The reality of poverty is haunting. Although no longer living with her ex-husband, she still harbored an intense grudge against him. It seemed almost unimaginable to her that she would ever be able to...

Bringing up her four grandchildren with no money to provide for them has been enormously challenging for Teresita. Before undergoing ICM’s Transform program, Teresita felt powerless to change her circumstances and unable to move forward. Teresita’s son was imprisoned for being suspected of theft, leaving Teresita with the job of raising not only his children,...

Last November, Janice noticed her middle daughter Carla Mae’s mouth and eye were swelling. Lips that were just cracked a few days previously, were now swollen and blistered. The single mother of five was concerned, but searching for enough work to feed her family was a higher priority than solving what seemed a small medical...

My name is Yuxuan Su and I recently intern at ICM for around two months. Over this period of time, I have had the privilege of working alongside some of the most dedicated, motivated and fun people I have ever met. One morning, I set out with a group of ICM trainers in our signature blue...

“I’m tired of being a mother.” With five children at home and an unemployed, unmotivated husband, Cheryl spent most of her days desperately trying to find a way to feed her family of six. Selling oysters, when she could find them, was Cheryl’s only job, but most days, she found only the rising tide of...