Category: Recipient Stories

Two women share how ICM’s Savings Group changed their lives and finances. ELENA Elena, 65, lives in a wooden house on stilts by a mangrove field with her granddaughter Rhealyn, who suffers from an undiagnosed chronic health condition. At 14-years-old, Rhealyn cannot speak and can barely stand by herself. The area around their house is...

Despite living in a small bamboo shack with no electricity or bathroom, Grace, 37, looks forward to the future. She has just completed ICM’s Transform program, where she learned how to use resources that are close at hand to feed and take care of her family. One of these resources is her humble garden. Okra...

Thirty-four year old Rosalie has worked hard her whole life to provide for her family. She currently lives without electricity in a house made of bamboo and corrugated iron with her husband and four-year-old son. They rent this small house for P700 / HK$125 / US$16/ AU$20 every month. Rosalie’s father died when she was...

Meriam, 23, is married to Volter, a passenger motorbike driver. Meriam stays at home and looks after the couple’s two young daughters, Angel and Stephany, while Volter works hard to provide for his family. However the irregular income of a driver is barely enough for them to survive. They live in a coastal village with...

  Thanks to ICM’s Transform program, Abad Maria and Pejana’s green thumbs are helping to feed their families. ABAD MARIA Fourteen years ago, Abad Maria took her three children and left her alcoholic husband. Now 47 years old, Abad lives with her children, one son-in-law and her three-year-old grandson in a small house built of...

By Kim Thomson, ICM Volunteer All his life, five year old Santino Elisalde has watched his fisherman father at work each day.  Santino lives with his parents and six siblings in a two room shack which hovers above the sea water at high tide. During low tide, the home is surrounded by residual rubbish and...

When a fire destroyed Cristine’s flimsy house late last year, she was grateful that no one in her family was killed. While Christine, her husband Raffy and their two children were unharmed, they were homeless. Before the fire, life was struggle for the Barbon family. Raffy worked as an occasional farm labourer and earned a...

Pastor Paul Posong was heading to the shops with his family when he noticed a man in distress. Seeing people in need is a regular occurance in Pastor Paul’s community in Palawan, the Philippines – but this suffering gentleman was unusual for two reasons: he was pushing a fantastic bicycle and Pastor Paul did not...

All photographs except the group photo (#2) by Mark Lehmkuhler March 27-29, 2015 saw 2,854 children from International Care Ministries (ICM) Jumpstart Kindergarten program graduate. The graduations, held across seven provinces, were held in formal auditoriums. Dressed in traditional graduation robes, the children sat together, with proud, beaming parents several rows behind.  Throughout the ceremony,...

Words and photos by Haley George, photographer It is a quick twenty minute motorbike ride on a dirt road into the mountains to get from school to Jhon Mark’s house. His mother, Rowena, knows each dip and steep edge well. When they arrive home, Jhon Mark takes a minute to play with his youngest sister,...