Tag: poverty

Five years after their first, fun-filled, hope-inspiring trip abroad, the ICM Children’s Choir returned to Hong Kong to celebrate ICM’s 11th Annual Banquet. What a difference those five years have made! Apart from the obvious changes (growth spurts and dropped voices!) the children have all blossomed into confident, poised young performers who stole the show, repeatedly,...

Last Thursday, hundreds of people in Hong Kong and supporters from around the world joined together to make dreams come true for impoverished families in the Philippines. At ICM’s 11th annual banquet children and parents from the poorest communities in the Philippines shared their stories of hope and encouraged the audience to ‘Dream with Me’....

Lisa, 29, lives with her partner and four young children in a small house built of scrap metal and wood with no electricity or toilet. Growing up, Lisa’s mother had five husbands and a gambling addiction. At 12 years of age, Lisa left home for Manila to work as a housemaid. At 13-years-old she fell...

HKIS family trip – June 11-14 On the day after First Grade let out for summer vacation, a group of five HKIS students headed out to Dumaguete City, Philippines with their parents on a service trip with ICM. The group of friends spent 4 days building container gardens, painting a school and serving nutritious food...

Six graduates of Ajong Sibulan Kindergarten returned to their alma mater this month to talk about their dreams and explain to their younger peers what they enjoy most about “big school”.  All six of the children are honor students, and they are studying hard to reach their young goals. Nine-year old Mary Grace Seraspe attends...

Anyone along the winding dirt road can point you in the direction of Panfilo Amigo’s home. The journey is almost surreal, past throngs of palm trees and recently harvested rice terraces; his lush garden grows out of the side of the mountain. When Panfilo says his life has been “natural” and “simple,” he means it....

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...

The students of Oxford Fall Grammar School have been taking mission trips with ICM since 2012. Each September a team of students travels to the Philippines to help those living in ultrapoverty. In February 2015 students from the school presented ICM with a $5,000 cheque to help support two ICM Transform communities in the Bohol and...

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...