Share a Child Movement

Educational Assistance Program

Educational Assistance

Child Rights Advocacy

Family Development

Livelihood and Skills

Relief Operations

Celebrating its 25th Anniversary
on March 10, 2007

Contact Us

Atty. Nina Valenzona
Executive Director

The Share A Child Movement, Inc.
3F FSV Building, 91 Rizal Avenue
Cebu CIty 6000 Philippines

  Email: shareachild@gmail.com
  Phone: (6332) 238-2487
  Fax: (6332) 253-6980

The Share A Child believes that education empowers people by opening a world of learning and opportunity even to the poorest of the poor. It strongly adheres to the total development of the individual through the four pillars of learning, namely: learning to know, learning to do, learning live together and learning to be.

Non-Formal Education

Share a Child operates various non-formal education outlets including:

1. Balay Bata Preschool Program
Balay Bata Preschool Centers – Balay Bata Centers address the need to provide preschool services in very poor areas for children who cannot be accommodated in the barangay daycare centers and public preschools or whose parents cannot afford to pay the monthly fees. The Balay Bata preschool serves as the entry point for the organization's Family Development Program to set up partnerships with families. Once families in the area are identified, Share A Child family development workers are immediately assigned to work with them in terms of providing trainings on parenting and home-based early childhood care and development, making referrals and providing counseling services. The Balay Bata preschool teachers then organize parents for regular consultations and dialogues on their children's development and progress in school and to allocate daily work assignments as their contribution to school operations.

2. Neighborhood Scouting Project
Value Formation for Children in Conflict with Law (CICL) – Children in conflict with law incarcerated in the city jail were the very first clients of the Share A Child Movement in early 1980s. It used to field two teachers to the city jail to hold two classes for child prisoners, one on basic literacy and the other on functional literacy. However, with the passage of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act by the Philippine Congress that raised the age of criminal liability of Filipino children from age nine years to age fifteen years, the Share A Child shifted its thrusts to provide a juvenile delinquency program at the community level. It organized ten (10) Neighborhood Scout Troops and trained community police and out-of-school children to become the scoutmasters and youth leaders, respectively, and continues to work with these community groups to provide literacy skills and life skills training to children at risk of committing crimes. Each neighborhood scout troop consists of 30-25 members. One neighborhood troop is now assisting community police keep the peace in the community.

3. Alternative Learning Systems for Child Laborers
Children from very poor families are often expected to help support their families and many are forced to drop out of school to work. The Share A Child partners with the Department of Education in providing Accreditation & Equivalency classes for many unreached children, more particularly child laborers engaged in the worst forms of child labor such as children in pyrotechnics production, in agriculture and children employed as domestic laborers.

4. Stop Trafficking And Exploitation Of People Through Unlimited Potentials
STEP-UP is a project that the Share A Child implements with funding assistance from Microsoft Inc through the Visayan Forum Foundation. Housed at the SUPACA R-HUB Youth Center , the Step –UP Project targets at out-of-school children who are at risk of becoming trafficking victims to teach them computer skills and enable them to become more competitive in the jobs market.

5. Life Skills
Children and young people who attend alternative learning sessions and the STEP-UP computer skills training are given life skills trainings with sessions on self-awareness skills, interpersonal relationships and communication skills, coping with emotions and stress in positive ways, critical thinking and decision-making skills, problem-solving and conflict resolution skills and setting goals for productivity and success. The sessions are facilitated by Share A Child staff who have been trained to the Skills for Life Modules developed for the Consuelo Foundation, Inc.

Formal Education/Back to School

Through this program, financial assistance is granted to poor but deserving children enabling them to finish elementary, high school, college or vocational school. Beneficiaries are selected on the basis of need and interest in school. Since the organization was formed, Share a Child has sent over 6000 children to schools.