PANGARAP NG PUSO PROJECT

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

The Pangarap ng Puso Project is rooted in the principle that a person is driven by his or her desires and dreams. Thus, The Street Classroom seeks to identify and understand what a child aims in life. We start with the end in mind.

The project follows a three-part process: (1) Ocular Visit and Pre-Activity Survey, 

(2) Outreach Activity, (3) Tutorial Sessions or Follow-Up Activities. Our outreach activities are conducted in open areas or in streets, where children are free to play, with the faith of removing their fear from classrooms, teachers, socialization, and the mere teaching-learning process. In connection to this, an ocular visit ensures that the venue to be used is conducive and aligned to the mentioned requirement.

The Pre-Activity Survey identifies the basic information of the beneficiaries, and their problems both at home and at school. Their responses are used to somehow understand the child, and are used as basis in tutorial sessions or follow-up activities. This ensures that all steps to be taken will benefit all beneficiaries.            

The Outreach Activity serves as an avenue for the organization to build rapport with the child and the community. It is divided into two main sessions, one for the children, and one for their parents or guardians. Children are engaged in learning activities titled “Ang Aking Pangarap”, and “Puno ng Buhay”, two activities that seeks for “pangarap” for themselves, and for the environment. These two activities are crafted with respect to the K-12 and Alternative Learning System (ALS) curricula, in order to align the activities to those taught inside classrooms. Focus group discussions are conducted afterwards to motivate children to pursue their dreams through schooling, and to move forward in spite of problems. Children also take part in “Palarong Lahi”, not just to teach Filipino culture, but also to teach them social, leadership, and communication skills. Simultaneously, parents are engaged in a seminar to learn topics like financial literacy, health, and parenting styles. The topics aim to address and respond to the problems solicited during the pre-activity survey. School supplies are given afterwards to the children beneficiaries to start their “street-to-school” success. All persons involved in the activity- volunteers, barangay officials, partner-agencies, parents, and children, evaluate the event through the use of a standardized evaluation form,

and through a child-friendly evaluation style.                

The Tutorial Sessions or Follow-up Activities are conducted in order to sustain children’s interest in school, and to also monitor their school performance. Tutorial sessions are conducted weeks before the quarterly exam. This is aligned to the law of recency, where students are found to retain more information when lessons are taught recently. Topics to be tutored are given by teachers from the beneficiary school. These topics are those classified by the teacher as difficult for the students to learn. Follow-up activities may be in the form of turn-over of books and/or school supplies to the beneficiary school, or donation of food packs and other basic necessities to those classified

as “disadvantaged” during the pre-activity survey.