by Bernadette Tan
Depending on your country of birth, your life chances and future outcomes are significantly affected. Universal Children’s Day, celebrated on November 20, 2016, is dedicated to promoting international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide and is coordinated by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Every child has a right to life, health, education and play as well as being protected from violence, exploitation and discrimination. Children also have a right to have their views heard.
ICM’s Transform program better equips parents to care for their children. Teaching parents basic first aid, hygiene and nutrition allows for healthier, stronger families. In 2016-17 ICM is targeting for Transform to reach 177,295 family members.
ICM’s Home-Based Feeding (HBF) program returns clinically malnourished children to optimum weight. In 2015-2016, ICM’s HBF restored 740 malnourished children to healthy weight.
ICM’s Jumpstart Kindergarten helps ensure that educationally at-risk children are introduced to learning.
Five-year-olds Joan, Kris and Katzmela attend ICM’s Belabeto Beanstalk Kindergarten, Bacong in Negros Oriental – they all have ambitious future plans. Joan is dreaming of becoming a doctor. She loves listening to stories – her current favorite is Jack and the Beanstalk, and also enjoys learning about the world from her teacher.
More than 17,000 children have graduated from a Jumpstart kindergarten since the programs 2005-06 inception.
ICM continues to provide help, inspire hope and create change in impoverished families across the Philippines.
By Gerard Adiong, Immersion Manager, ICM & Helen Carruthers, ICM Volunteer, top photo by Haley George, photographer, bottom photo by Gerard Adiong
About the Author
Bernadette Tan
Deputy Director of Communications
Bernadette is a communications graduate who has spent the past 20 years serving in various international non-profits. She is a passionate storyteller and an eternal optimist.
Bernadette loves spending time in disadvantaged communities, listening to families, and giving them a voice through her writing.
Did you know? ICM delivers Transform for just over US$10 per person.
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