Books and teaching aids to low income Filipino schools

Jonah Bishop

During Christmas 2011, our volunteers had the goal of helping at least 1,000 children from poor areas in Taguig, Phillipines. We contacted the DSWD (Dept. of Social Welfare) and discovered that there are 130 government run day care centers for poor children with approximately 10,000 children enrolled. So we went ahead and with the help of the DSWD and Barangay (town) officials we arranged two events in which four towns would be involved, with a total of 17 Day Care centers and around 1050 children.

Our goal was to give each child an individually packed bag with 4 note books, 4 pencils, an eraser, sharpener, ruler, pair of scissors, bottle of glue, set of crayons, a pencil case. And (this is where Activated Ministries came in) 2 Grandpa Jakes activity books to go along with the sponsored items which Activated Ministries sponsored. These books were also to be given to the teachers of each school. Then we hoped to give each child another bag consisting of toothbrush, paste, soap and shampoo, and finally a third bag with 2 kilos (4.4lbs) of rice, and canned fish. We also hoped to be able to feed each child a special packed lunch, as well as other snacks after the program. All of this was a lot to focus on, but thanks to our sponsors and volunteers, by December 4th and 11th each of the programs were organized and all the supplies had been bought or donated.

Our program consisted of an animated story and cartoon of the first Christmas, translated into Tagalog and read by our 19 year old volunteer Christine, then our children performed several songs, after which we handed out snacks while our volunteers prepared to start distributing the goods. We then prayed with all the children to receive Jesus as their savior. After the children had finished lining up and receiving what we had to give, we were able to pass out a yummy meal donated by several restaurant chains.

Once all the kids had eaten and were on their way home, we gathered the teachers of the schools together for an onsite seminar. We presented each of them with the materials which had been generously sponsored by Activated Ministries, and then went over each item explaining the contents. Two of our volunteers, Maria and Grace, were able to demonstrate different teaching techniques and tips on how to best use the materials. Each teacher received the materials gratefully, and we were able to raise the additional sponsorship as there turned out to be a total of 17 schools, which was more than originally anticipated.

We hope that we will be able to work again with Activated Ministries in future projects to get quality materials into the poor schools and areas here in the Philippines. Thank you for your support!