Outreach International helps community-led organizations identify and prioritize issues that have kept them in poverty, sometimes for generations. A common issue is the lack of adequate access to education. It’s well known that education is a foundational pillar to success in life. Yet in many low-income countries, children often find themselves unable to maximize the benefit of their school years. This can be because of a lack of school near them, a lack of time to attend school, or because of a lack of the supplies they need to thrive in the classroom. This issue is common for rural schools in the Philippines.
Outreach-affiliated communities often identify access to education for their children as a high-priority issue. And making sure their children are properly educated doesn’t end with attendance alone. This blog post highlights three inspiring project successes, where communities provided school supplies for children, so they can make the most of their education and the bright future it will help them to achieve.
Santa Lucia Old
The community organization of Santa Lucia Old in the Philippines recently mobilized to provide their primary school children with their all-important school supplies. In all, 120 young students received these supplies, and the group considers the project a great success. These children are now able to get so much more out of their opportunity to attend school, and their future is all the brighter for it.
Sitio Bimangon
The community of Sitio Bimangon in the Philippines also identified a lack of adequate school supplies as a high-priority issue. They accessed supplies enough to distribute to 238 students in their community, ranging in age from daycare children to college students. The project has been so successful in fact that the groups who provided these school supplies have pledged to provide even more. So there may be another round of distribution to benefit even more schools in the Philippines.
Santa Monica
The Santa Monica Group distributed school supplies to 139 children. But that wasn’t all they provided. The greater purpose of the project was to increase the students’ confidence in the classroom. All of the funds for school supplies came from private individuals, offices and local government offices. And a free haircut was provided by PAK (Parlorista At barbero Kami Foundation, Inc.), who says its mission is to “spread love one haircut at a time.”
This helps children get the most out of their education, even beyond having the proper supplies for learning. Because of this expanded thinking, 62 children received haircuts on the day of the distribution event, which was shortly before the start of the school year. Being well-equipped and feeling great about their looks, these students started the year of school in the Philippines with some much-needed confidence to succeed.
Education Unlocks a Future of Prosperity
There’s no greater gift a community can give its children than a proper education. It doesn’t just set that child on a path toward a better, more prosperous future, but it brightens the future for everyone. As children learn and grow intellectually, they also gain self-esteem. All these benefits of education lead to future informed, confident leaders who can improve life for an entire community. And with these schools in the Philippines properly equipped with the school supplies they need to succeed, the future of these children is brighter than ever.
How to Help
Find out all the ways you can give to help children and families in impoverished communities around the world as they work to improve issues such as children’s education.
