INTERNATIONAL CARE MINISTRIES
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Mission Statement
International Care Ministries has been serving the poor in the Philippines since 1992. At ICM, we believe that no one should live in abject poverty. With the right support, the right training and the right resources, the bondages of poverty can be broken. In the last few years, ICM has reached nearly a half million ultrapoor people with life-changing, community-based, holistic education. Our programs create measurable improvement in families and whole regions across the central and southern Philippines. This wide impact is possible due to ICM’s unique approach of partnering with the existing infrastructure of local churches found in most Philippine slum communities. After our four-month Transform program, ICM participants experience: • 34% increase in household income • 13% decrease in serious illnesses • 53% reduction in reported physical abuse in homes ICM inspires hope and provides help to transform lives.
About This Cause
At ICM, we believe that no one should live in abject poverty. Helping children starts with strengthening those that care for them – their mothers. In the Philippines, mothers are usually the primary caretakers who provide for the physical, emotional and spiritual development of their children. They are the providers of fuel and water for their homes. They manage household health, hygiene and nutrition. When you build a woman’s capacity to better provide for her children, you become a catalyst for change in entire families. Every year ICM works one-on-one with mothers and fathers from more than 20,000 households, positively impacting more than 100,000 family members. We call this program “Transform” because that’s the goal – life transformation. Transform brings together the right support, the right training and the right resources to unlock the bondages of poverty. So how does it work? The partner pastor invites 30 people, from the most vulnerable households in the community to join the weekly Values, Health and Livelihood (VHL) training course. ICM trainers lead the VHL lessons and distribute resources. Six volunteer “counselors” from the host church also join the group to offer one-on-one support and encouragement to participants. During the week, participants encourage one another as they try out new businesses and implement new health and relationship strategies. At the end of 16 weeks, participants enjoy deeper family relationships, healthier children and greater household income. A Transform community is cost-efficient. The pastor and counselors work for free and ICM staff are paid local salaries. Most of the cost of the program is covered by donated food. ICM’s fully loaded cash cost of running a single Transform community is only US$2,000. About US$10 per family member to deliver hope for the future. Children's Education - JUMPSTART KINDERGARTEN In some areas where ICM operates, we face the challenge of large numbers of educationally at-risk children. This is due to a variety of reasons -- public schools are either too far away, families cannot afford public school fees, or there is a lack of understanding about the importance of education. In the Philippines, nearly 1.5 million children aged 6-15 are not attending school. Among the country’s poorest 30%, 40.2% of family heads did not graduate from elementary school. In order to help address this problem, in cooperation with the Philippine Department of Education ICM operates Jumpstart kindergartens in some of our Transform Communities where children are especially vulnerable. The 30+ students enrolled in each of ICM’s 90 dual-stream, ten-month kindergartens are children of parents who participate in ICM’s Transform program. We help our young learners develop the academic skills, self-discipline and attitudes they need to excel as they move up into public school first grade. Without Jumpstart, these children would struggle in public school or may not attend at all. With Jumpstart, these ultrapoor children often become the strongest students in their public school classrooms. Students get much more than education, however. Low teacher/student ratios ensure students get personalized attention and support. Daily hot meals, two medical checks, deworming and vitamin supplements, classroom setup, school uniforms, backpacks and school supplies are standard in every Jumpstart kindergarten. Last year, 3,150 students graduated from 90 ICM kindergartens. Surveys from one year after the conclusion of VHL training show that most of these improvements continue. In some cases there are further dramatic improvements. For example, one year later there is a further 46% reduction in homes without toilets and a further 32% reduction in people who eat less than three meals each day.