New School Year Starts: Preschool Program Continues to Make Lasting Impact

In June of this year, thirty eight ICM preschools opened their doors to 950 eager young students excited to begin their academic careers. This is ICM’s third year of running preschools in impoverished communities in the Philippines. Sixteen of the preschools are opening in new regions.

Not only do ICM’s preschools equip the children with education to prepare them for first grade, but students at ICM’s preschools are served hot lunches every day. Annie Tapuz, Regional In-Charge of the Preschool program in Negros Oriental, says,

“The significance of feeding in our preschools cannot be underestimated. While tudents in other schools bring lunchboxes with whatever their parents have managed to prepare for them from their inadequate budget, our students bring empty lunchboxes where they can put their left over to be eaten for dinner.”

The students who attend the preschools are identified after a survey of the entire community. The 25 most vulnerable students are invited to participate, with preference given to older children who haven’t started school. Some students come from broken homes. Some have been abandoned by their parents and have been left to relatives. The preschool teachers often end up taking on more than just education.

Annie reports, “Teacher Charita sometimes gives her students a bath because it breaks her heart to see them come to school without out even washing their face. Teacher Regina has opened her home to little Vicenta who was abandoned. She is now a teacher and mother to the child.”

Not only are the students impacted by the program, but also their families. The weekly Bible studies and lessons in health care, the encouragement found from the others mothers who prepare the hot lunches together each day, the support of the local church community and the hope for a better future for their children all work together to significantly impact lives."