Family Academy – ICM’s early childhood education strategy

Growing up with a physically abusive father who’s now serving time in jail, 5-year-old Ella Mae has found refuge in her mother who cares deeply for her. Ella Mae lives in a bamboo house near the river with her mother and her three older siblings where access to education is hard.

Because of the pandemic, distance learning has been the norm for all the students in the Philippines. While this has kept children safe from the COVID-19 virus, parents had to bear most of the responsibility for their kid’s education.

The shift to distance learning during the pandemic has been difficult enough for most families, but for the ultra-poor, distance learning often feels like an impossible task.

Here in ICM, we have found that one of the best ways to promote economic growth among the poor is to empower women for greater productivity. In fact, 88% of our Transform participants are women.

Manila, Philippines — The Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) virtually signed a Memorandum of Agreement with nonprofit organization International Care Ministries (ICM) on December 4 to train and equip hundreds of thousands of families across the country with distance learning skills during the pandemic.

December 10, 2020 – The Department of Education (DepEd) virtually signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the International Care Ministries (ICM) last December 4 to cement a partnership to assist parents of learners, especially in Kindergarten, on a better understanding of the modules provided by their schools.

Week after week, month after month, COVID-19 forced Rhodora and her family of nine to stay at home. Problems threatened to overwhelm them. Rhodora’s husband lost his job. Food was scarce. The fear of the virus was always with them. “It is only by God’s grace that we survived,” Rhodora shared, thinking back over the last few months.

This month, ICM took part in Zero Extreme Poverty PH 2030’s 6th General Assembly Learning sessions on poverty alleviation programs— our Director of Education Anna Alegre was one of the speakers for the education learning session: From School to Home.