Provide Protection Through an Education Program

For thirty (30) years since 1989, Childhope Philippines Foundation has tried its best to continuously respond directly to the needs of about 1,200 street children yearly in Metro Manila. These children are exposed everyday to the hazards and risks of working and living on the streets. The following have been the strategies conducted: advocating, mobilizing, and developing the capacity of grassroots communities to protect the rights of the children, to provide care, assistance, and support to children at risk and children in need of special protection (CNSP); and assisting the street children through an integrated holistic direct service Street Education Program.

Based on the study done by the Philippine government, there are 222,400 children who live on the streets of Metro Manila. Some children live with their families while some live on their own. These children have limited access to food, shelter, protection, and health; and these children don’t have a chance to go to formal school.

Street children generally lack access to public school services due primarily to poverty. Although there are some street children (working children and children of street families) who go to formal school, very few of them are able to continue and complete their studies due to their families’ lack or insufficiency of funds. While public school tuition fees are supposedly free as guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution, other fees or charges are required in many public schools such as Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) fees and expenses for field study trips, and school projects.

Through the Educational Assistance Project (EAP), the street children who wish to attend and complete their studies in the mainstream formal school system are given the opportunity to attain their basic right to education.

What We Do

The Educational Assistance Project (EAP) will support the educational expenses of the street children working on the streets whose families are not financially able to support school-related expenses.

Through the EAP, Childhope Philippines hopes to extend assistance to 150 deserving street children to enjoy their right to formal education in either elementary or junior high school.

The beneficiaries of this project will, in the long run, experience less discrimination because they will no longer be ignorant and will be able to speak and defend themselves and their rights, learn from current events, new discoveries / innovations, developments in fields that are of interest to them, and issues that directly affect them. Eventually these children can be gainfully employed and will earn their own money; but for now, it is important that they will be given the chance to go back to school and open doors of opportunities for them.

This project aims to provide educational assistance for one (1) year to 150 street children who are in need of financial support in order to attend formal school. They are either presently out-of-school who desire to go back to school or are currently in-school but are at risk of dropping out due to reasons such as the need to look for a job to earn and buy food for their family, the difficulty in combining work and school, the need to assist in caring for younger siblings since their parents are doing menial jobs, insufficient funds to buy materials for school projects, among others.

The school year in the Philippines begins in June and ends in March the following year. Tuition fees are free for public schools, colleges and universities but the child must provide for books, school uniforms, physical education uniforms, shoes, school bag and other school supplies, fees for field / observation trips, and materials for school projects. Expenses for meals and transportation allowance are among the most common problems these street children encounter, preventing them from going to school every day. In fact, based on our experience, most urban poor families cannot simply afford to send their children to school regularly due to these circumstances.

To date, Childhope supports the education of 44 street children beneficiaries under the EAP and hopes to extend the support to 150 more street children who are in dire need of financial support for schooling.

Learn about Childhope Philippines' Educational Assistance Program, downlaod the document attached below.

• Proposal_for_STEPEducational__Assistance_Program_Proposal.pdf (PDF)