17-Year-Old Seeks to Empower Brilliant Minds, Launches Classroom-Building Project

Although preschool education helps kids get a leg-up on learning by setting the foundation for formal education, UNICEF Philippines reports that only 6 out of 10 children between the ages of three and five have access to it.

This is where the newly launched Kaagapay sa Silid (Partner in Classroom-Building) charity project comes in—spearheaded by the Empowering Brilliant Minds (EBM) Foundation, in partnership with Aklat, Gabay, Aruga Tungo sa Pag-Angat at Pag-Asa (AGAPP) and The British School Manila, it aims to offer quality preschool education to less fortunate children by building preschool classrooms and libraries in the country’s poorest public schools. The program includes not only the infrastructure in which to provide preschool education, but also teacher training and the development of a sustainable curriculum.

The non-stock, non-profit, SEC-registered Empowering Brilliant Minds Foundation is the brainchild of 17-year-old British School student Anton Vera. It all began when, returning from church one morning, the Vera family passed by some street children, some as young as three years old, and wondered what kind of future they would face as well as what they could do to help change these children’s lives and secure a better future for them. Anton’s parents took the first step to make this idea a reality by partnering with AGAPP and funding two classrooms in Aniban Central School in Bacoor, Cavite.

In the coming year, the EBM Foundation has taken on the challenge of building one classroom each month as well as partnering with AGAPP and The British School Manila to launch two projects that will help support Kaagapay sa Silid: Kaagapay sa Guro (Partners in Teacher Training) and Kaagapay sa Paghubog (Partners in Child Development). The two projects will be launched in May 2012 and will involve programs in which students of The British School Manila will share their knowledge of math, science, and reading with less fortunate kids at the preschool level.

Check out photos from the launch of Kaagapay sa Silid on December 10, 2011, in the gallery below:


(Photos and information courtesy of Empowering Brilliant Minds Foundation)