On Saturday night, on Saturday night, May 6, the Head of the Department of Education Regional Director, Attorney Alberto T. Escobarte CESO IV, of Region XI; and Dr. Janette G. Velosa, Ed.D OIC-CLMD Department of
Education Regional Office; Dr. Melanie Arcilla Director of the Dmirie Foundation, which was sponsored by the MX3 company; Dr. Aland Mizell, President of Minority Care International; Attorney Susan Cariaga, President of Thompson Christian School; and Ms. Maria Corazon Masbad, Principle of Thompson Christian School, gave certificates to MCI college students who volunteered to tutor the Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM) students as an incentive for college students to help the less fortunate and to accrue on-the-job training in their field of education. Also DEped gave plagues of appreciation to the Dimirie Foundation MX3 and Minority Care International to show their heart-felt appreciation and gratitude, especially to the Dmirie Foundation, MX3, and its president, Ms. Gina Marie M. Espejo, for advocating that education is a shared responsibility and for taking a stand in education by sponsoring and serving 60 students especially the least, the lost, and the last one. Dr. Melanie Arcilla congratulated the tutors for their involvement in the community by saying, “ The best investment is in eternity and our reward is heaven”; that’s why they are involved in helping disadvantaged people. Many students were moved by her talk and testimony about how she became involved in this kind of significant work. Attorney Alberto Escobarte congratulated the students and shared the quotation from Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtue, but parent of all the others.” The good book tells us to give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for us to be grateful for whatever we have, friends, family, home, people with integrity involved our lives building a solid foundation. Also, the students were grateful for having an opportunity to involve others. MCI Administrative Coordinator, Stephanie Ebrano, said that by helping others, we are helping ourselves. Attorney Susan Cariaga also thanked the tutors for their sacrifice, help, and time; the best investment is in another human being.
A Danish proverb says that our lives are a gift from God, but what we do with our lives is a gift to God. We are very thankful to Ms. Gina for being a gift to needy students. The Dmirie Foundation MX3 not only helps 60 students to continue with their education but also creates an opportunity for more than 30 university students to volunteer to tutor the ADM students with different subjects every day, Monday through Friday between 6:30- 9:00 pm. In this way university students learn the blessing of sharing with others, learn to reach out to their community, and learn how to help out others by sharing their knowledge and time.
Attorney Susan Cariaga and DepEd Director Attorney Alberto T. Escobarte thanked Minority Care international for providing the venue and organizing the tutors to come Monday through Friday to tutor students without any cost. In short, because of this partnership, the program is touching many young lives. This program was implemented in 2015-2016, for the achievements of our students and volunteers and the effectiveness of the partnership. This is a unique program. We were especially interested in the role of state, private and non-profit≤ and profit organizations in the education of the disadvantaged.
The Alternative Delivery Mode Education Program is designed to meet the needs of at-risk students who are not succeeding in the traditional setting. It addresses the learning needs of the marginalized students and those learners on the verge of dropping out in order to help them overcome social and economic constraints in their schooling. The high cost of education may cause the students at-risk of dropping out to move out of a traditional program. The bigger mandate for our partnership is to look out for those who cannot be in school, those who dropped out already, and those who did not dare to dream of entering a school; it searches for those who cannot, in one way or another, go to school or who have dropped out. Our research determined that the combined collaborative efforts of four entities–Minority Care International (MCI), Thompson Christian School (TCS), the Department of Education in the Philippines (DepEd), and the Dimirie Foundation MX3—together aim to increase the quality of education for the vulnerable population, such as out-of-school youth and marginalized students. Through this partnership, the government will be able not only to open more opportunities for students with special needs but also to provide every Filipino child with access to quality education. The ADM students registered at TCS and will graduate from that K-12 institution. ADM students attend TCS once a week; in addition, they attend the MCI tutorial sessions daily, except for the weekend.
MCI provides the physical place for ADM students with university students tutoring and mentoring them and rotating grade levels during the different evenings of the week. Tutors are matched based on their subject range, suitability to each student’s needs, and scheduling. In addition to providing academics assistance, tutors also become a role model and mentor to students through the strong bond they develop. TCS provides modules for ADM students to follow. Aside from the physical space, MCI also provides computers to offer students a foundation in computer literacy and to teach them the use of basic information and communication technology tools. ADM students earn 60% of their credit from studying at TCD and 40 % from attendance at the mandatory MCI tutorial sessions. TCS provides tutors a notebook for each ADM student to take notes, and those notes are given weekly to the TCS administration. Both TCS’s ADM coordinators and MCI’s coordinators meet at least once a week with the TCS administration and the MCI college students who tutor the ADM students one-on-one to make sure that each student follows the modules and attends the tutorials. Each college student who tutors has a booklet about each ADM student to evaluate them weekly and to give the result to the TCS program head. Most of the tutors who teach the ADM students are majors in special education, so they are already trained for these types of tasks. Currently, 30 students and volunteers come from different universities to tutor the ADM students, but predominately the main feeder institutions are the University of Southeastern Philippines, the University of Mindanao, and the University of Immaculate Conception. The program leads give tutors authority to rate the students’ performance based on how they respond to every question the tutors give, their attendance, and their readiness (preparedness) when they arrive at the tutorial center in the Turkish Coffee Shop. The tutors give their assessment of the students to the ADM teachers at TCS, and that grade is added to their Performance Tasks (PT) with the percentage of 40% for the overall evaluation. As of now, there are a total of 60 students enrolled in the ADM program, but we are praying that we will be able to double that number to 120 if we find sponsors.
In short, in this partnership Dmirie Foundation under the leadership of Ms. Gina Marie M. Espejo is touching many young lives. The good book tells us that God has given each of us talents and gifts to be used to accomplish His will on earth. It also reminds us that by joining together we can achieve much. “Two are better than one: because they have a good reward for their labor.” Partnerships are precious and require genuine commitment, shared sacrifice, and a common purpose. Partnerships with a purpose can overcome many obstacles and achieve great things. We thank you for all the blessings you have given, and we pray God will continue to shower you with His blessings.
