Scouting to Help More Manila Slum Program Beneficiaries

Our field partner in the Philippines, HONOR 1000, interviewed another batch of beneficiaries for our Manila Slum Program. To identify the second batch of beneficiaries, we visited two schools near the area. One of the Principals, Dr. Ryan, was very eager to partner with us especially when he learned that we are helping families from Ronas Garden. He shared that he himself and some of their teachers even did an enrollment campaign in Ronas Garden, where they went house to house in order to encourage parents to enroll their kids.

Dr. Ryan confirmed that students haven’t been attending school. When able, they would set a meeting with the parents to ask for reasons for the children’s absences, but often, they would get discouraged by the parent’s lack of involvement. He shared that when some children experienced earning, for example, 20 pesos in a day ($AUD .54), they tend to be content with that and choose to skip school.

Dr. Ryan and his teachers tried to “adopt a student”, ”where each teacher would give small snacks to a student of their choice to somehow help and encourage the child to consistently go to school. This didn’t last long though. Currently, Project 3 elementary school has a 16% dropout rate. This is considered very high given that public schools in the Philippines seldom fail a student except in extreme cases like zero attendance throughout the school year. Dr. Ryan believes that our educational program, coupled with parenting training, would significantly help solve this problem.

From these interviews, we found 7 girls that fit the criteria, bringing the total beneficiaries of our program to 147.  (Batch 1: 70 Batch 2: 77)

As we provide monthly support for their children’s education, we want the parents to have an active role in encouraging their children to go back to school. We believe that aside from the financial help, equipping the mothers and strengthening their families through seminars and training will be a more long-term help for the community. Some of our topics for parent seminars are in line with DSWD’s Parent Effectiveness Service (PES) such as: Understanding the dynamics of the Filipino family, Parent’s Self-esteem, and Parenting Styles.

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