Improving Kids’ Lives in the Philippines

The Philippines’ Taguig City recently entered into a joint venture with the Everest School in Fort Bonifacio, to build a Mano Amiga (Helping Hands) school by the year 2009.

The proposed school is one of several elements in a city-wide effort to improve conditions for children in Taguig. These elements together, including the proposed Mano Amiga school, earned the city an award granted by the President’s Council for the Welfare of Children, which recognizes the role of local government units in promoting and protecting the rights of children.
Taguig City’s mayor, Freddie Tinga, envisions the planned Mano Amiga school as the best socialized elementary school in its class.

His expectations are on the mark. In Central and South America, Mano Amiga schools are a proven way to break the vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Since Mano Amiga schools work with the whole family, they enable children with promise to rise above their circumstances and use their success to give back to their communities later on.

Complete version of the article can be viewed at:

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?id=18896&se=364&ca=119&te=782

Off to a good start

After a year of waiting, the first Mano Amiga Academy in the Philippines will now officially start this September 2008 in Taguig City. Mayor Freddie Tinga and his wife, Kaye, graciously lent us a temporary building while we're raising funds for the construction of the campus. For the first three years, we'll be using a steel frame building built by Habitat for Humanity in the Rotaryville Family Townhomes (located in FTI). In preparation for the school opening, Mano Amiga volunteers recently painted the classrooms and helped transform the building's bare walls into the perfect learning environment. :)