ICM Teacher Training

While the Arms of Love Kids are in school we will be partnering with a fantastic ministry that works with the "poorest of the poor" called International Care Ministries. ICM does a LOT, values, health,and livelihood training, feeding programs and schools. The Philippines has free public schooling, but kids must qualify to enter with some basic literacy and math skills. Of course this system keeps the poorest illiterate and in a cycle of poverty. In Bohol alone ICM has 15 kindergarten preparing kids in their program to enter the government schools. I am so passionate about this project and really wanted to be involved.

So Thursday we got to visit one of the schools (which was actually built with the help students from ICS in Hong Kong!) It was inspiring to see what a difference the teacher was making even with her limited resources and many challenges. The kids put on a little program for us. Aren't these girls precious! The director told us afterwards that the girl in the middle was abandoned by her mother ):
On Friday I was given the privilege of training the teachers at their monthly staff meeting. The teachers have huge hearts, but haven't received a lot of training or preparation. Before beginning I was chatting with one teacher, Lillian, who teaches kids who live in a dump. I really began to wonder how relevant my training on phonemic awareness and classroom managament was going to be for her. Fortunaltly it went really well. The biggest challenge was talking over the passing rain pounding on the tin- roof (: The ladies were very grateful and so eager to learn all they could. I learned from a teacher's assistant after the training how much she is paid. I was shocked that they make less in a month than I would make in a hour of tutoring. For these ladies teaching truly is a minsitry.