AFTER household chores, eight mothers in a Masbate barangay come together to take on another role: literacy champions for themselves and their children.
Erlinda Cabarles, a mother of seven, rises at 3 in the morning to do her household tasks. While her family sleeps, she cooks, cleans, and prepares for the day. A barangay nutritionist by profession, she wears many hats: she’s also a teacher under the ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines, a project of the Department of Education in partnership with USAID and implemented by RTI International along with The Asia Foundation. The project aims to improve learning outcomes for children in the early grades.
Erlinda is one of eight women behind the neighborhood parent support group (NPSG) of Barangay Tugbo in Masbate, an out-of-the-way coastal town off the southeastern peninsula of Luzon, where the closest urban center is a 30-minute tricycle ride away.
In Tugbo, children aged 14 and below make up the lion’s share of the population at 40.5 percent, according to government data. The barangay estimates some 45 percent of the labor force is unemployed, while school officials say most can neither read nor write.
This was something the NPSG felt they had to solve on their own. And so these women, their own education limited to the elementary level, took up the mantle of literacy champions with the help of their barangay, who made the initial call for volunteers to receive training.
There was a clear desire to learn, but the biggest barrier was often language in a time when there was a gap in the availability of books in the mother tongue in the community.
Through the support of USAID via ABC+, reading materials in the Minasbate language were developed and distributed to all elementary schools. The books, now in their mother tongue, are available in the schools and provided to their children.
Women-led collective action
IT took another woman in Kagawad Maria Cris Cos who lobbied for her district to have a space where children could read. She attended a few learning sessions and decided they needed somewhere they could call their own.
It started with the newly constructed Barangay Learning Center, which functions principally as the main space for the NPSG. For two hours, children read. They’re free to ask about words, stories, or everyday life. They work their way up on meanings, enunciation, and critical thinking day by day, story through story.
Today, the women clock in to teach up to 30 students, and even their husbands have joined the project to help children love reading. Interest in reading is skyrocketing.
Rose Sese, another NPSG member, says they are not just teaching reading—they are teaching the love of it. “We don’t want the kids to read, we want them to want to read,” Rose says in mixed Filipino and English.
The most surprising improvement is that it changed their dynamics at home. “Reading was really bonding for me and my kids. We got closer at home. Because here, you really have to be friendly with the children so the environment is lighter,” she says.
And so by starting at home, the Tugbo NPSG earned the backing of DepEd and the local government. Their hope is that other mothers realize they have the opportunity to do the same.
Erlinda says the impact grew beyond the confines of an educational setting. “I improved myself and the children here around us because before, they would just spend their time loitering around,” she says fresh off a reading session.
The community action of NPSG demonstrates the importance of partnerships and shared accountability between families, schools and communities to build conducive learning environments.
Moving forward
THE mothers have broached the idea of tapping publishing houses for printing books and nearby private sector to provide resources. The mothers envision a future where education is not a privilege like it was for them but an accessible right. “As long as we’re here, our weekends will continue. This will go on as long as we’re able. As long as the children keep showing up, the learning center will go on,” Erlinda says of the project’s sustainability.
In a small sitio in Barangay Tugbo, the learning gap is soon closing because strong women took the lead together.
For Imelda Viterbo, another NPSG member, it is the children’s keen interest in learning and reading that motivates them to pursue their work. “Our first priority will always be our children’s literacy,” Imelda said.
Barangay Tugbo’s is a story of women coming together, supporting each other and amplifying their voice as literary champions.