Where the Heart is

Angel, ICM’s Family Academy coordinator in Dumaguete, first heard of ICM when the staff came into their community — Bayawan, Dumaguete — to conduct the Transform Program in 2015. “My father is a pastor and when we found out about ICM’s mission and vision, I was so happy to join Transform as a counselor,” she said.

Angel with Transform participants, when she was still a Health Trainer.

Angel immediately applied for the job when she heard about ICM’s search for a Health Trainer, even if she was a theology graduate. “I just thought I’d give it a shot,” she confessed. “I was hired on January 20, 2015.” Six years and a pandemic later, she’s thriving in ICM and still loving her job.

Memories as a health trainer

As a Health Trainer, Angel went to different communities and helped many people. Many of those areas are beautiful but difficult to get to. The roads were unpaved and only accessible by motorcycles or “habal-habal” as called by locals. “There was this one place that was extra difficult to get to and the pastor had to give us a ride on his motorcycle because we couldn’t get a habal-habal  to get there,” Angel recalled.

Sometimes getting to the community is the toughest part of the job.

The travel to some of the more remote communities may be tiring, but Angel’s exhaustion melts away because of the warm reception they got from the participants. “Some of them come from far away too,” she said. “When I ask them where they live and they use their hands to point, it means their house isn’t too far away. But if they point with their chins, that’s when I know they had traveled far to get here.”

Angel remembers this particular community because it had many pregnant women who needed help. There were many children who attended Family Academy.

Growing into her new role

Angel became a Family Academy Coordinator last November 2020, right before ICM formalized our partnership with the Department of Education. With this partnership, ICM Family Academy coaches support parents in teaching their children for distance learning. ICM Dumaguete has 39 volunteer coaches.

“I guess one of my biggest challenges right now is my new role, because I’m new to it,” Angel shared.

Angel mentoring parents for Family Academy in 2020.

Heart for the work at hand

In a time of uncertainty because of the pandemic, Angel’s role and purpose in life remain clear to her — to help as many people as she could. This is why she joined ICM in the first place.

“I’m looking forward to helping more people,” Angel said. “I really like to teach children and to help parents teach their kids. My heart goes out to parents who could neither read nor write. I’m grateful I could help them through the Family Academy.”

Another reason for Angel to be grateful that she’s with ICM is this was where she met her partner in life, Aaron, a Livelihood Coordinator. They got married in 2018.

Angel with her husband Aaron