Days after Marawi was sieged by pro-Islamic State militants in May 2017, Omairah Rascal fled the city along with her three young children to a town 17 kilometres away, to escape bullets and bombs that killed hundreds and ruined the capital of Lanao del Sur province.

They stayed in a government evacuation center, but after running out of money for one of her baby’s needs, they returned to her parents in Marawi after a month.

Three years after the five-month battle between Philippine troops and Islamist militants that displaced thousands, many of Marawi’s residents remain in temporary shelters as they deal with the new challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even before the pandemic, Synergeia Foundation saw a strong need to return Marawi’s children to school, some of whom were cut off from the education system for as long as two years as the trauma from the fighting haunted them. This prompted Synergeia to bring its Adopt-A-Child program in Marawi last year.

As children resume their education through Synergeia’s Adopt-A-Child program, it helps them heal from the wounds of the war, reclaiming a sense of normalcy and stability as they pursue learning in safe spaces that hopefully would reignite their individual aspirations.

Rascal’s eldest child, Johary Haron, only returned to school last year, becoming part of the 163 children in Synergeia’s Adopt-A-Child project in the city.

The program allows anyone to be a foster parent to a child in Marawi by supporting his or her school needs for P600 a month. It’s one of the pioneer programs of Synergeia, an organisation that has been working since 2002 for every Filipino child to complete basic education.

Adopt-A-Child

Along with letters of gratitude, Rascal and other parents whose kids are part of Synergeia’s Adopt-A-Child program, send over a copy of their children’s report cards to the foster parents.

His return to school helped Johary recover in the aftermath of the 2017 siege, says Rascal. But this year presented fresh challenges for the family.

As the health crisis forced schools to close, she had to take over the teacher’s role at home. She divides her time between two of her kids who are on remote learning, helping them out when she can and making sure they liaise with their teachers via call or text if they encounter any issues with their learning modules.

“The teachers here monitor the progress of their students by checking in on them during the assigned schedule for each subject,” she says.

She is thankful that Johary, now in third grade, is able to continue studying through the Adopt-A-Child program. She and her husband barely make ends meet by hawking vegetables, as the pandemic caused her husband to lose his income.

“We are doing everything we can so that our children will be able to finish their studies and won’t experience the hardships that we went through,” she says.

Rascal’s husband was a tricycle driver who ferried students in and out of Mindanao State University. As the pandemic shut schools, it halted her husband’s, and their family’s, only means of income. The bank soon took back their motorcycle after they missed monthly payments, forcing the couple to find another way to feed and raise their children.

In a bid to augment the income of some parents, Synergeia in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, conducted livelihood workshops in June and July to teach them to make hand sanitizers and face masks.

One-woman job

Norma Macot’s 10-year old daughter Jannah who’s in fourth grade and dreams of being a teacher someday, is also part of Synergeia’s Adopt-A-Child program.

Macot is a hands-on mentor to her daughter at home, grateful that she didn’t show any signs of distress after the war.

“Back then, she just wanted to return to school and was so happy when she finally did,” she says. She spent the first allowance she received from Jannah’s foster parent last year on a new bag and shoes to inspire her daughter.

After her husband died in March of a stroke, Macot is getting help from her mother and sister in raising her four kids, two of whom are studying including Jannah’s five-year old sister.

But it’s become a one-woman job for some mothers like Sapia Bayabao who tends to eight kids, a sick husband and a small store.

Of her eight children, six are studying including 14-year old son Amenola who is also in the Adopt-A-Child program and hopes to be a future engineer.

She focuses on her two Grade 6 children, including Amenola, and allows the rest to reach out to their respective teachers when they need to.

“I’d really prefer for face-to-face classes to resume because that will mean a big burden off my chest. But I guess that will have to wait for now,” she said.

By Maricel de Guzman (mdeguzman@www1.synergeia.org.ph)

by Manolo Serapio Jr.

Grade school students, all wearing face masks and seated about a meter apart, lined an area shaded by trees in southern Maguindanao province. It’s Monday and two teachers take turns explaining learning modules that the children are expected to answer for the rest of the week.

The town of Paglat, which hasn’t had a single case of COVID-19 since the pandemic hit the world this year, is among a few places in the Philippines that are taking bold steps to help learners cope with school work through in-person tutorials.

As the pandemic closed schools and transferred learning to homes, many students are grappling with the modules on their own with their parents either working or unschooled and many families unable to afford phones, computer and Internet connection.

Holding in-person teaching sessions, which began in early November, was the idea of Paglat Mayor Abdulkarim Langkuno. He says he was prodded to act by Synergeia Foundation President Milwida Guevara following a virtual meeting with local chief executives of Mindanao just days before.

“She (Guevara) said to think of ways to help the students,” says Langkuno. “I met with all the stakeholders and this is the only solution I could think of to help the teachers, the students and the parents.”

Paglat is among 426 local governments that work with Synergeia, a non-profit organisation whose goal is for every Filipino child to complete basic education.

Even as the health crisis forced schools to shut to curb the spread of COVID-19, Synergeia has continued to engage with educators, parents, students and communities via online workshops and meetings to push for measures and reforms to make sure every child’s education continues unimpeded.

Inspired by Synergeia’s reform push, similar in-person tutorials are happening in other parts of Maguindanao including North Upi, and in Balindong, Lanao del Sur. Other places where similar sessions are being held are San Gabriel, La Union and the towns of Cabatuan and Concepcion in Iloilo province, all done with strict compliance to health protocols.

‘Under the trees’

Like in most of these places, students in Paglat are given tutorials at least once a week. Each session runs for about two hours and covers subject areas in the learning modules provided by the schools that students may be struggling with or need more explaining of.

In some communities, parents are required to bring chairs for their children to limit health risks. Even with no recorded case of COVID-19, residents are still mandated to wear masks and violators are fined.

“The sessions have to be done in well ventilated areas, not in rooms. So most of the time, it’s under the trees, an open-air gymnasium or any open spaces,” said Langkuno.

The local government hired more than 60 additional teacher volunteers – education degree holders who have yet to take licensure examination – to augment the current crop of 40-plus permanent teachers to cover all of its eight barangays.

The municipality, with a population of about 24,000, has nine elementary schools and three high schools.

The open-air learning sessions are a big help for parents in Paglat, where less than 10 percent of adults have finished college, says Langkuno.

‘Best legacy’

Education is close to Langkuno’s heart – it was key to rewriting his life story that in the 1970s was drawn to the armed struggle in Mindanao.

At 17, he was a commander of the Moro National Liberation Front, the Muslim separatist group that fought for an independent Islamic state for decades before reaching a peace deal with the government in 1996.

Convinced by a relative that education should be his priority, Langkuno soon after left his hometown to study civil engineering in Manila. That led to a career in government and later, a big job at the Ministry of Agriculture and Water in Saudi Arabia.

He returned to the Philippines after 15 years, became a lawmaker in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and was later elected mayor of Paglat, a municipality that was only created in 2001.

“Education is the best legacy,” he says.

Datuan Matu, the school district supervisor in the municipality, says the learning sessions in the purok, or small community areas, are also a more efficient use of teaching resources.

Instead of the teachers making individual house visits, they are able to reach a bigger group of students in a community in one go, giving them more time on the tutorials themselves, he said.

“We saw that the children were able to answer the modules, which means learning is taking place,” said Matu.