Category: Women

Mylin, 23, lives with her partner Roderick and their nine-month-old daughter Yuri, in a house made of bamboo and palm leaves. They do not have electricity or proper water supply. Working as a farmer, Roderick makes roughly PHP2,000 (US$46.51) a month. His earnings equal US$0.51 per person, per day. It’s hard to believe that Mylin...

Once she made the decision to attend ICM’s Transform program, Clementina never wanted to miss a lesson. She organized her life so that she would be able to attend the lessons and still have time to take care of household chores, her children and her disabled husband, Sulpicio. Clementina really enjoyed the livelihood lessons, particularly the...

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...

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,...

“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...

Arlene has all the energy and enthusiasm that a kindergarten teacher requires. The 34-year-old is a high achieving English graduate and has been teaching for 12 years. For the past three years, Arlene has taught at ICM’s Malayang Mangarap (Free to Dream) Jumpstart kindergarten, sponsored by ESF South Island School in Hong Kong. Arlene has...

Arlene worked at a vending stand and made US$3.33 a week. Her seasonal job, harvesting vegetables, occasionally brought in another US$6.50 a week. If employed, Arlene’s husband Arnel could earn up to US$8.30 a week, however his carpentry jobs were erratic. The parents of three teenagers were working hard, but money was always tight when...