COVID-19 Emergency Education Response

Dear Friends,

We hope this email finds you well and safe.

We are writing to give you the latest updates from FundLife's work across our education projects in Leyte and Cebu, supporting marginalised children and youth who have further suffered due to the impact the COVID-19 restrictions have had on their education.

With your support, FundLife continues to provide vital support to children, most of whom did not access face-to-face education between March 2020 - November 2022 due to the educational suspension caused by COVID-19. Our teams on the ground continue to reach children every single day. Below is a snapshot of some updates from Dec 2022 - Feb 2023 with some photos of our work in action;

• FundLife has Established 11 functional and accessible learning spaces in Leyte with the Department of Education across Leyte to support children with play, homework and life skills.

• From Dec 2022 - Feb 2023, we delivered 182 study support sessions (163.5 learning hours) to 543 academically challenged learners from 9 partner schools in Tacloban City.
  
  
• Delivered 86 after-school play-based sessions for 1,233 children from nine schools, two community sites and one child-care facility.
  
  
• Facilitated two consultation meetings and dialogue with parents and teachers. The activity enabled a safe space between parents and teachers to discuss the progress of students' performance and address pressing challenges.
  
  
• Organized nine fun learning festivals with nine partner schools and Child Care Facility to recognize good-performing learners and supportive parents. In 2022 awards and certificates were distributed to learners.
  
  
• Organized two big tournaments - Christmas Cup last December 2022 and 2023 Kick-off Football Festival in January 2023. The tournaments were organized to celebrate successful engagements with children. These tournaments were participated by 252 players and 31 teachers and parents.
  
  
• FundLife received the 'Most Outstanding Partner' award from the Department of Education for the 4th consecutive year for our work to assist the most marginalised students and youth.

To learn more about our work, please follow our social media pages which will begin to be updated regularly.

Facebook Page
https://www.instagram.com/fundlifeint/
Linkedin Page

We remain grateful for your support and look forward to sharing more life-changing updates over the coming months.

Links:

• Tacloban Festival: January 2023
• FundLife award from Ministry of Education - 4th year in a row!

Dear Supporter,

We hope this report finds you well and excited to read what we have been up to!

We kick off with great news! 

We are delighted to report that over 80% of all schools in the Philippines have resumed full-time face-to-face learning for their students. This news greatly relieves parents, teachers and children who have endured disruptions for over 30 months to regular face-to-face classes. 

While this is news to celebrate, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to touch the lives of children as they struggle to recover from the learning they have lost. Research undertaken with our partner schools has found that as many as 8 out of 10 children are below the national average for reading and numeracy - a direct consequence of the learning they have lost in the last 2.5 years. To ensure children not only stay in school but can achieve their full potential, FundLife has and will continue to launch innovative educational opportunities to accelerate the learning of all children - more of this a little later!

Here is a brief update on what we have been doing in the last three months;

FundLife has remained on the front lines of supporting children during the last few months. In Tacloban, we have continued to reach children through our Community Learning Spaces, our ongoing Girls' and Boys' Community Sports Leagues continue to provide children with access to play, learning and mentorship regularly. We have attached some of our highlights from July and August, showing exactly the impact we have been able to have. 

In Cebu, we have continued to deliver COVID-19 recovery projects to support adolescent girls and deliver back-to-work training programs to enable young vulnerable women to secure safe and dignified employment. For more details of our Cebu and girls' led programming, please see our #StandWithGirls dedicated page on GlobalGiving.

Our Highlights:

• Leyte Communities Celebrate the Global Day of Play
• Young Futsal players from our Girls Community Leauge Awarded For their Commitment
• FundLife receives an award for outstanding contribution to the community

Get to know some of the youth coaches that are supporting our project participants:

• Meet Aspiring Coach Dan
• Meeting Senior Coach Patty

Looking Ahead:

• FundLife launches Digital Inclusion project to reach 6,000 students in Metro Cebu

We hope you will be encouraged by the progress we are making and the transformative impact your support continues to provide for all so many children across Leyte and Cebu. We cannot do this alone and we look forward to having your support during these last few months in 2022.

As we stay focused to close out this year full speed ahead, we send you our very best advance wishes for the upcoming holiday season!

Yours in Colour,
Marko

• July Assessment Data (PDF)
  
• August Assessment Data (PDF)
  

Dear Friends,

We hope this email finds you well and safe.

It has been an incredibly busy and exciting last three months at FundLife as we continue to ramp up our programming and return to some level of pre-COVID-19 interaction with children.  The most impactful and significant update is that after more than two years of school closures, children are finally starting to return to classroom education. Although full-time classroom education is not due to begin until September, the gradual reopening of schools has been a positive light on what has been an extremely difficult time for children. 

Below are some of our highlights over the last three months and also our 2022 impact, as we have just finished our bi-annual impact report.

SNAPSHOT OF OUR REACH in 2022

• Since the start of 2022, our emergency COVID-19 response programming reached a total of 3,798 children and youth in Leyte (2,235 male and 1,563 female) with SEL support and learning and consistent sessions. On average, children in our programming attend 2-3 sessions every week, giving them consistency of support and monitoring. 
  
  
• Our Cebu response, supported by the #StandWithGirls campaign, has reached 528 adolescent girls and young women. Programming for girls include mentorship sessions, learning packs, digital and vocational training and employment pathways.

Some Highlights of the last three months:

• Launch of additional play/learning activities in seven (7) new communities across Leyte and Tacloban.
• Delivery of Youth Mentorship Capacity Building Workshop in Leyte
• In partnership with 'Girls Got This', FundLife completes digital training skills for Adolescent girls from Cebu
• FundLife launches our 'Social Enterprise Pathway' for dignified employment in Cebu
• Resumption of the Girls and Boys Community Sport League in Tacloban, reaching over 350 players

MEET OUR YOUNG CHAMPIONS:

• Meet Lolita - Football player, peer mentor and future scholar
• Meet Jenny - GGT Participant and committed to education 

As always, thank you for all of your support and believing in us so that we can believe in their dreams!

Dear Friends,

9 days from now, (March 11th) will mark two full years since children in the Philippines were last allowed to step into a formal classroom. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions imposed on children, almost all public schools in the Philippines have remained shut. 

Since the pandemic began some 750 days ago, FundLife has been responding to reach children who have been worse impacted by the restrictions to their learning and personal well-being. In the last three months, here are some of the noticeable updates and accomplishments we have managed to achieve due to your ongoing support and contributions*;

• 279 Children reached in Tacloban with 'Dream Packs' consisting of learning activities and games to be played at home during restrictions stopping children from leaving their homes
  
  
• 155 Girls reached across Cebu with 'Learn-at-Home' Packs and Mentorship Support sessions. As well as direct social, emotional and educational support, girls were given stationery kits, resiliency activity packs and mental-wellbeing support tools to help them during the school shutdowns 
  
  
• 2 New 'Community Learning Spaces' launched in Tacloban, providing direct and regular access to learning for 98 children every week
  
  
• Delivered 78 play-Based Learning and Social sessions for children across Leyte, amounting to over direct 210 learning and support hours for children
  
  

In addition to the continuation of our direct learning initiatives, FundLife has also been working directly with local education officials, advocating and campaigning for additional learning spaces to be opened for the safe reopening of schools so all children can return to full-time education. 

Over the coming weeks, FundLife plans to further extend our reach to children by launching the following new activities in March;

• Resume the Girls and Boys Community League project, that will provide regular structured futsal leagues to vulnerable children (project has stopped since Feb 2020 due to COVID)
  
  
• Distribute a further 498 Dream Packs and Learn-from-Home packs to vulnerable children and adolecents across Leyte and Cebu.
  
  

During these distressing times in the Philippines and also the world over, we remain grateful for your ongoing support of our work. Our lines remain open should you have any further questions about our COVID-19 response as well as post-COVID-19 programming that is slowly starting to be delivered. 

With sincere gratitude,

Marko

*On December 16th, Typhoon Rai/Odette struck the Philippines and caused widespread damage across Cebu and Southern parts of Leyte, and directly impacting communities we support. As a result of the typhoon, many of our regular programs in Cebu were impacted for a number of weeks. For detailed reports and updates on our Typhoon Odette Response, please visit Typhoon Rai Response Page.

Links:

• Dream Pack Distributions
• New Learning Hub Opens in Tacloban
• FundLife received award from Ministry of Education

Dear Supporter,

We hope our latest update finds you safe and well.

We are sharing our 10th COVID-19 Response report, highlighting our activities and achievements from July - October 2021 in Cebu and Leyte. Since our last report, the Philippines has become the only country in the world that has not reopened schools.

At the time of writing, it means children have been out of school for 602 consecutive days, prolonging the emergency and making our response all the more imperative. Here are the impact snapshots since in the last 3 months.

• We have reached an additional 294 highly vulnerable youth with  'Safe and Learn-from-Home' packs, taking our total reach to 1,063 vulnerable youth in the last nine months. 
  
  
• We have continued to deliver  'Community Learning Spaces' in Leyte, providing access to safe learning zones for children who do not have access to learning spaces. In total, 240 children have been impacted through regular access to mentors and a safe learning environment since it was launched in partnership with local health authorities.
  
  
• We have supported an additional 96 youth through the delivery an 12 mentorship sessions across Cebu and Leyte
  
  
• Created and delivered reading and comprehension support classes for 82 learners identified as slow and non-readers from 3 established CLS in Leyte. In addition to direct support to sustain their education, youth have also been attending mentorship sessions to improve their SEL
  
  
• We have continued to produce and share educational and social issue videos by the youth for the youth. In total, we have produced 23 new Stay at Home Exercise videos and 10 educational videos tackling various social issues that have gained over 47,761 unique views.
  
  

The impact of these direct interventions on the educational and psychosocial welfare of children cannot be understated as we enter the 20th month of the COVID-19 emergency. With a recent announcement that public schools will not reopen until March 2022, at the earliest, our focus continues to be reaching and teaching children to ensure they will return when schools reopen in 2022. Our next steps between now and the new year are;

• Reach an additional 240 children by launching the Community Learning Spaces in 8 new communities (30 children per community) across North Tacloban, where we have been advised children are facing increased risks of educational deficit and drop out. 
  
  
• Continue to reach and extend support to existing communities across Leyte and Cebu, and monitor the ongoing mental health of youth in the hardest to reach communities.  

We again thank you for your ongoing support of our work and share photos and links to demonstrate the impact our work is having.

For more info please do follow us on FB where we make daily updates www.facebook.com/fundlife and www.facebook.com/girlsgotthis 

In gratitude and with hope,

FundLife Team