WHAT makes our ECCD style MORE EFFECTIVE ?

TEACHER Helen has enough problems dealing with 20 rambunctious preschoolers who fight over scarce workbooks daily. She also has to suffer jealous village officials and government regulators who make a lot of fuss about the substandard conditions of the center she manages in the seedy Magdalena area of impoverished Manila. The leaky roof and dirt floor are simply not child-friendly, they chorus as they pounce on her with inspectors, paperwork and threats of shutting down the facility when they feel like it.

In contrast, a more comfy government-run center nearby hardly attracts attendance. So why do parents flock to Helen’s center? It seems they have their own idea of what child-friendly is all about. They send their kids to places nearer their houses and workplace. They also take pride in participating in the everyday affairs of the center they can call their own.

AKAPBATA developed this child care center in Magdalena and 34 others in Metro Manila with the consistent principle of participatory development. We make sure that teachers are recruited from the communities and equip them with a curriculum that keeps them in touch with the realities of the children. Parents learn to feel confident to be part of the children’s development and not just stand idly by outside the center. We work hard to convince government that

AKAPBATA’s efforts in fact help speed up the efforts of all parties, public and private, to provide 15 million Filipino children the Early Childhood Care and Development under the law. Our grassroots model in fact mobilize more local community resources to complement the tiny sums of money that the government budgets on ECCD.

Grant from METROBANK Foundation powers 60 volunteer teachers

METROBANK Foundation Inc. awarded a grant of P50,000 pesos in 2005 to AKAPBATA to support its capacity building program of continuous teacher training.

The grant made it possible for 60 teachers to keep developing new skills in play therapy, child minding, nutrition management and teacher-parent interaction. Many months onwards, the constant opportunities of sharing and talking to one another during training resulted in keeping morale high despite the extremely difficult economic situation that most of the child care centers face.

Teacher training for child care minders prove to be a very critical investment in community human resources. Akapbata calls on many other businesses that seriously plan on expanding their Corporate Social Responsibility to devote sizeable funds to capacity building for teachers.

CARITAS Manila blesses kids with chairs

CARITAS Manila has benefited AKAPBATA with a thousand stack up chairs that will be shared among 35 child care centers across Metro Manila.

Children and their teachers gleefully greet batches of chairs being unloaded from AKAP BATA’s delivery van and cart them to the child centers. Teachers welcomed the gift as a timely replacement for old wooden chairs that are nearly worn out and defective.

The bequest of chairs was facilitated by Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of CARITAS Manila and one of the board members of AKAP BATA

Hotelier donates PC, office gear to Akapbata

A hotels consultant from Basel, Switzerland was chatting with a group of Filipino contract workers in an internet café when they chanced on the website of Akapbata. Reading about our calls for assistance, Matthias Meyer decided to gift Akapbata with two balikbayan boxes of office materials.
The donation included a personal computer, two printers, two scanners, a fax machine, photocopier, a manual camera and supplies of printer ink and thermal paper. Mr. Meyer said he would try to get his friends in Switzerland to continue sending gifts to the Filipino children.
Help AKAPBATA spread the word about working together for Early Childhood Development. You can do your share by printing the outer and inside pages of this newsletter and folding crosswise along the center. This is the inner side.
Make many photocopies back to back and share these with your friends and workplace colleagues. Use this to inspire your group to raise small amounts to help AKAPBATA’s advocacy. Also send the PDF file to all your email networks. Like Mr. Meyer You too can help Akapbata meet its commitment to the poor children and their families by donating cash, materials and services. Get in touch with Akapbata at the contact information in this newsletter. Thank you to all who support our development projects for the children!

APO East Coast jumpstarts the Pinoy 29ers bandwagon

Picture shows from front left: Brod VP Butch Binuya, Brod Secretary Rommel Artes, President Philip Tolentino, BOD Sis Bembem Duenas, Edgar Atadero, Brod Jhun Baldonado and Sis Marivic Glova. Other members standing at the back are Brod Opal, Brod Auditor, Sis Lotlot, Brod Bert Paule, Brod Billy Mejia, Brod SRB, Sis Bing and Brod Rory.

APO alumni from the Philippines who moved to the United States East Coast became the first
overseas group to support the Pinoy 29ers Movement, a fundraising campaign for the Early Childhood Care and Development projects of the CCWPD.
APO Brod and 2006 President Philip Tolentino promised to support CCWPD in their endeavor projects after he turned over the brotherhood’s initial love gift of one hundred dollars to AKAPBATA during an informal APO gathering in the borough of Queens, New York City.
Tolentino said he will propose to the body that CCWPD be the beneficiary of future fund raising project of APO East Coast Alumni Association. Mr. Edgar Atadero, a project development staff of the Center for Community Work and People’s Development, who attended a civil society meeting at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session in the city, accepted the donation for Akapbata.
Pinoy 29ers is a novel fundraiser that aims to raise 29 US dollars a year for every child that CCWPDI provides for with basic education materials. The campaign is targeted towards migrant worker and professional Filipinos based outside the Philippines.