Tag: education

What do you do when the pandemic has wiped out your livelihood and you don’t know where your next meal is coming from? For Robina from Aklan, it is to keep on going and even find more ways to serve other people in these tough times. When tough times get tougher Even before the pandemic,...

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...

…how you make a living! And that’s not easy! Most ultrapoor families struggle with even keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads. Things like buying medicine, sending children to school and paying for electricity are difficult, if not impossible. In Transform’s Livelihood lessons, trainers teach the participants how to bring in...

Maybe you’ve heard the name “Family Academy” or seen Facebook pictures of little kids pointing at numbered cards, but how much do you know about Family Academy? Before we explain the program, let’s first talk about the educational needs we’re trying to meet. As the Philippines government has expanded their educational reach, we have, happily,...

ICM is pleased to announce that the six-month results of a large scale randomized controlled trial on ICM’s Transform program were released on February 19th as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. This paper was also reviewed by the Economist in the Feb 22nd print edition – read it here. The study was also mentioned in this article...

The United Nations has declared May 15th as the annual International Day of Families.  The theme for this year’s day is: Families, education and well-being. The Day highlights the importance of all caregivers in families, be it parents, grandparents or siblings and the importance of parental education for the welfare of children. It focuses on...

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...

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,...

Judilyn Yangco and Susan Entong grew up in some of the most challenging and heartbreaking circumstances conceivable. Judilyn, abandoned by her parents, was the breadwinner for her three siblings at the age of nine and almost died from TB. Susan’s father, drunk one night, threw a kerosene lamp which burned Susan’s face, arms and neck...

Graduation is upon us – around 2,315 Jumpstart Kindergarten graduates are in their last week of school and are busy preparing for their graduation ceremonies.  These kids have completed a full year of reading, writing and arithmetic and have fulfilled all the requirements for entry into public school first grade. Enjoy some pictures from the last...