A year of preschool made possible by CFSI’s Basic Education Project has given Mindanao siblings Sokrie and Hanipa Cosain a new outlook on life and their parents new hope for their children’s future.
Eight-year-old Hanipa Cosain and her 14-year-old brother Sokrie both have special needs – Sokrie an eye defect that has left him near-sighted, and Hanipa an enlarged toe resulting from elephantiasis. Despite the delay in the start of their education, both have just successfully completed a year of preschool at the Tabay BRAC Learning Center in Barangay Budas, Balabagan, in Lanao Del Sur province in Mindanao.
The existence of the Learning Center is thanks to the Basic Education Project – a collaboration between CFSI, Stichting BRAC International and the Philippines’ Department of Education launched in 2012 in 15 conflict-affected municipalities in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces. The project is aimed at enabling far-flung communities without access to education to establish preschool and elementary schools utilizing an alternative delivery mechanism.
Education truly is for all – particularly for those children with special needs like Sokrie and Hanipa.
The project, which receives financial resources from AusAID, organizes communities to put up classrooms, provides school supplies and equipment, and trains local teachers and caregivers to carry out Department of Education-approved classes.
Prior to attending the school, Sokrie and Hanipa were both shy and aloof, each fearing ridicule and bullying. Neither had been to school, and they remained isolated from other children. Their parents had tried to enrol them in a new public school some kilometers away, but both cried with fear and could not be persuaded to attend.
However, when the BRAC School opened in Barangay Tabay close to their home, Learning Facilitator Samira Pangcatan encouraged their parents to enrol them. She succeeded, and the pair began preschool in June 2013.
But it was not an easy transition; the pair didn’t socialize with their classmates and were withdrawn from class activities. Recognizing their shyness, Ms Pangcatan took them aside and spoke to them privately, telling them they were no different to other children; rather, that they were special and had no reason to be shy. She said that if their classmates could learn and play, so too could they.
As the weeks and months passed, Sokrie and Hanipa began to associate with their classmates and became more active in class. They already knew the alphabet and how to write their names, and were also able to count.
Ms Pangcatan and the children’s parents are thankful for the Basic Education Project, which has helped to increase the children’s confidence and interpersonal skills through the school’s unique learning environment.
Education truly is for all – particularly for those children with special needs like Sokrie and Hanipa.