Hope Education Center

Helping to alleviate the Crisis and give Hope for the future

What We Do
Hope Education Center – Educating urban poor youth

Education is one of the most effective tools a society has to enable sustainable economic and social development.  As both a basic need and a human right, education is fundamental to any effective program that aims to build a better quality of life for the poorest and most marginalized people in the world. (CIDA, Canadian International Development Agency)

Unfortunately, public schooling in the Philippines is not free.  Not only are there costs for textbooks and supplies, but there are also fees for mandatory uniforms, exams, and projects.  Other financial hindrances are the cost of transportation to and from school as well as food.  It is common knowledge that students do not learn adequately with empty stomachs.  

^{a peek inside the HEC classroom during class time}

Academics

Hope Education Center is designed to get out of school youth back into the process of completing their high school diploma.  A diploma greatly increases their ability to provide for themselves and helps keep them out of a lifestyle of crime.  Classes run 5 days per week and students are tutored in core subject areas and are taught the alternative education curriculum from the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd).  This curriculum prepares students for the final exam. Those that pass this exam will receive their high school diploma.

The heartbeat of the Hope Education Center is to produce leaders.  We believe that in these youth lies the potential to produce some of the best leaders the Philippines has ever seen.
Our programs are designed to help the student achieve their academic goals through:

• Creative elements of team building, problem solving and use of games. This gives the students greater opportunity to explore what they have learned in a non-intimidating atmosphere.
• Tutoring in core subject areas from DepEd teachers, foreign interns and university graduates.
• Strong emphasis on character development, moral values and application of truth.
• Experience in computer labs with use of the World Wide Web.
• Opportunities to boost the learners reading abilities by reading from the library selection, which includes Christian and academic books, as well as fictional books and resources.
• Unique schedule catered to the students' needs.
• Counseling, personal mentoring and small group educational activities are included in the program.

Adventure Education

We have discovered a niche in educating youth outdoors.  Our experiences have ranged from leading team building bible camps on tropical beaches, mountaineering trips that help out with medical outreaches/tree planting, as well as working with Outland Adventure.  Outland Adventure, a high and low element ropes course, was created to challenge the city’s youth into deeper commitment and greater fruitfulness.  Many of our staff are equipped to facilitate and lead 3 day adventure camps.  Our hopes are to raise enough funding to subsidize 3 day leadership camps for high school and university students that would build teams, develop leaders, and teach moral and biblical values.  Riding on the momentum from these camps, our team would follow up with small groups on campuses to encourage the students.  
 
Jubilee Kindergarten

Out of the “House of Jubilee” in Agdao, we have developed an outreach in Cabantian that includes a fellowship, bayanihan banking project, youth group, micro-enterprises and Jubilee Kindergarten.  Jubilee Kindergarten was created out of the desire of our families to have a quality Christian school in their community, as the closest kindergarten is 25 minutes away.  Presently, 30 students attend the school, five days a week. 

Tutoring and Mentoring

Students often do not perform well in school due to the shortage of books (sometimes only one book per class), large class sizes, and literacy issues in addition to family problems and poverty issues.  This is why we put a significant emphasis on the tutoring and mentoring of our students.  Our teachers and volunteers help students understand the curriculum so that they can perform better and ultimately become more productive in life and to society.

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