Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation’s Hope Paddlers bring hope to kids amidst this pandemic through Hope in a Box

Every child has a right to proper education. However, in the Philippines, thousands of children are still deprived of this right– and with the ongoing war against the pandemic, education for every child has become even more difficult to achieve. 

When the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was implemented in the middle of March, life for most Filipinos stopped. People stopped going out on the streets, laborers stopped going to work, and of course, students stopped going to school. Since March is usually the final weeks of the school year for elementary and high school students in the country, everything that is supposed to happen in the classroom, even the graduation ceremony, turned digital– at least for schools and households that could afford to do so.  

However, in far-flung communities where transportation is already a major challenge that hinders most kids from going to school, the reality is and will definitely be a different story. Now that the virus has already reached many provinces, opening of school is delayed until the middle of August forcing the kids to continue staying at home for almost 4 months now. 

According to  child psychologists, kids stuck at home should continue learning and should be provided with educational materials to protect their psycho-social well being. But how can households and schools in rural areas create this environment for their children if they could not even afford to buy basic school supplies or gadgets needed to access online learning materials? Sadly, providing children with their needs to protect their mental health from the consequences of this pandemic is a  privilege that several families in the country do not have.  

With the intent to help address this problem, the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation partnered with our platform, BEAGIVER Campaigns to launch the Hope in a Box, a nationwide campaign to provide local school children with learning kits and educational materials while they are at home during this difficult time. This campaign aims to reduce the anxiety caused by this pandemic to children and provide them with simple means to cultivate creativity and learning. 

This campaign was first created by one of YBH’s Hope Paddlers, Teacher Ruel Visca, to provide learning kits to kindergarten pupils in Sta. Maria, Romblon who are forced to stay at home due to the community quarantine. With the help of Ruel’s fellow teachers–who were more than willing to donate what they can such as extra school materials, the Hope in a Box initiative was born. 

Teacher Ruel hands out the box of hope to one of the students in Sta. Maria, Romblon.

Teacher Ruel’s team of volunteers for Hope in a Box.

Kids in Sta. Maria, Romblon who received the boxes of hope.

After seeing Ruel’s first wave of distribution, the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation’s Ambassadress, Pauline Amelinckx, got inspired and adapted the campaign to give art materials and basic school supplies to the Bol-anon kids in her hometown in Tubigon, Bohol. In just a few weeks, Pauline was already able to distribute over 40 boxes to the children in her barangay who were very happy with their new art materials and coloring book created by Pauline herself. 

Pauline went around her barangay to give the Bol-anon kids her boxes of hope.

One act of giving really gives birth to another. In just a few days, Hayds Abid-Sijera also adapted the campaign and initiated the Hope in a Box- Tanay for the Dumagat kids in the mountains of Labian, Tanay, Rizal. Hayds has been a community volunteer for years and has always looked for ways to help the communities she was immersed in. Thus, when she learned about YBH’s latest campaign, she immediately thought of the Dumagat kids in Tanay and how happy they would be to receive these boxes of hope. Now, Hayds has raised 11 boxes and is hoping for more support in the days to come. 

Some of the Dumagat kids living in the mountains of Tanay, Rizal, whom Hayds would like to benefit through her Hope in a Box campaign.

The Hope in a Box campaign also reached the mountains of the north. In Mountain Province, the organization From Mountains also initiated the campaign to make the kids in the barangays of their hometown happy. Just a couple of days after their campaign was initiated online, From Mountains has already reached the initial target of their campaign, which benefits not just one but 3 schools! Thus, they decided to reach for more and continued to open their campaign for more givers. 

The beneficiary children of BEAGIVER Romeo’s campaign back in 2018. Together with his friends, Riza and Melody, they are initiating another campaign again for the kids in their hometown.

Hope in a Box did not only reach the north, but it’s also going to Mindanao through the Sibugay Funds for Little Kids- Yellow Boat of Hope,  a 9-year YBH chapter in Zamboanga Sibugay that has been advocating for the accessibility of education. Now that we are in the middle of this unprecedented pandemic, the Sibugay Funds for Little Kids represented by Jenifer Cardente aims to continue serving as a beacon of hope through Hope in a Box.

Jenifer Cardente along with the beneficiary students of The Sibugay Funds for Little Kids- Yellow Boat of Hope during one of their programs before the pandemic.

Now that the country is still under uncertain times,  the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation hopes that through Hope in a Box we can help more children access learning and cope with the anxieties caused by this pandemic. More than that, we also hope to empower more individuals to initiate their own Hope in a Box campaign for the children in their communities. Learning should never stop even though the children are away from school and with more people advocating for the right of every child to education, the hope that someday no child will be left behind lives on. 

Support the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation’s Hope in a Box campaigns! Just click on the following links below, and read the story behind each Hope in a Box campaign. Hopefully, you’ll find one that you’d like to support. You can also initiate your very own Hope in a Box campaign! Fill out this campaign form or  check BEAGIVER’s FB page for more updates.  

Hope in a Box Campaign Links

Hope in a Box-Romblon: https://bit.ly/3daevuI
Hope in a Box-Bohol : https://bit.ly/3eaQvsK
Hope in a Box-Mountain Province: https://tinyurl.com/y9ecrg4
Hope in a Box-Tanay: https://bit.ly/2AO6OgP
Beacon of Hope (Hope in a Box-Zamboanga Sibugay) : https://bit.ly/3gfRb0w