February 29, 2020
Minority Care International’s goal to raise awareness of the importance of giving was made possible through the community outreach project Tools for Schools. MCI’s scholars experienced the joy of giving by handing out school supplies, Projector, to the College Education Behind Bars in Davao City Jail on February 29 ,2020. President of MCI’s Student Association Andrea Cate Carteciano, MCISA Officers , Habail Shyra and Adil Theresa turned over the Schools and office supplies to College Education Behind Bars Vice President Attorney Susan Cariaga MCI teaches that giving is living and living is giving. This was MCI sixth batch of Tools for School in the Davao City Jail. The purpose of the project is to teach the recipients the value of education and to inspire them to become the hope and role model of their generation. MCI is not just giving scholarships and training them in life skills but also is teaching its scholars how to give back to the community. This was an opportunity for students to return a blessing to the community and to model the values they learned in the MCI program. MCISA students did fund raised and they are the one who sponsored this year’s MCI annual Tools for School project at the jail. MCISA President Andrea said, “It made me feel amazing inside knowing that we were given the chance to give back to the community and see the smile on these students. MCI is making the world a better place.” She encouraged the inmates to continue to do the right thing and not to focus on the past but to learn lessons from it. Also, She urged them to trust the current process they have undertaken in terms of rehabilitation, etc. Living as a community means having a genuine relationship with our God and demonstrating His love and service from our core.
In 2016, Dr. Aland Mizell conceived of and founded the first College Education Behind Bars in the Philippines with the encouragement of Attorney Susan Cariaga. The SETBI partnered with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines (CHED), the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR), and the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) to establish Education Behind Bars, the first such initiative in the Philippines and Asia to provide college education for the incarcerated; to do so, SETBI constructed a college campus inside the Davao City Jail, funding the building and furnishing the classrooms. This program allows the PDL to earn a degree from USEP while serving their prison sentence. n October 2017, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with SETBI for the possible nationwide expansion of the College Education Behind Bars Program. SETBI anticipates implementing the model across the Philippines. Currently Offered Programs at the College Education Behind Bars
College Education Behind Bars currently offers the following programs:
- Four year Degree College Education through USEP/ DNSC
- Recovery Program, inside and outside
- Senior High Program
- Vocational and Technical Program
- Transition, Reentry, and Ready for Work ProgramNow, having already successfully completed its third academic year of pairing academics and rehabilitation, SETBI seeks to strategically extend the course offerings and thus the depth of college by partnering with the Davao Del Norte State College (DNSC). To this end, SETBI and DNSC signed a Memorandum of Agreement in February, 2020. Incorporating higher education with a recovery program for the incarcerated not only transforms lives, but also converts them from tax burdens to taxpayers while simultaneously reducing recidivism. If anyone willing to donate books and schools supplies to Inmates at the Davao city jail. Please contact Aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
