"They dream of quality education for their children but the nearest public school has been hard to reach. Before long, the tides have turned for the Tagbanua of Culion through multi-stakeholder collaboration and the community's determination."

As has been our experience with our Tagbanua learners from Palawan, it really does take a village to raise our children! Even as a million different challenges appear daunting, there is hope that they can be overcome when people put their heads, hands, and hearts in working together.

It is with immense gratitude that we recognize the Children’s Hour Philippines Foundation, Inc. who has been a generous partner in helping us hone young Indigenous Peoples–among our nation’s future– through culturally relevant education.

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Through the partnership with Children’s Hour, Cartwheel Foundation harnessed the collective strengths of its partner Tagabanua community and multi-sectoral stakeholders in Culion, Palawan to ensure the sustainability of relevant education for Tagbanua learners. Through coordination with various development actors, key agencies have increased involvement and counterpart resources in the delivery of education services to the Tagbanua.

The community school for Tagbanua learners—managed by Cartwheel in Sitio Alulad since 2012—is now in the final stages of the process of being granted accreditation by the Department of Education (DepEd)-Division of Palawan as a full-fledged Indigenous Peoples (IP) School, to which an official DepEd School Identification (ID) may be issued by school year 2020-2021.

The partnership between Children’s Hour and Cartwheel also made possible the integration of resilience building components into its existing education initiatives. Cartwheel’s previous approach focused on Early Childhood and Elementary Education; its new model has now evolved into an enhanced Education and Child Development (ECD) initiative that enables a more holistic approach toward the Tagbanua learners’ growth and development. The approach draws from two interconnected psychosocial education and health frameworks. Through the integration of these, the ECD model is able to demonstrate how children can recognize their inner strength, and draw restorative strength from supportive social networks in their communities, toward harnessing their own resilience.

Through the support of Children’s Hour, the implementation of a more programmatic yet culturally rooted approach in conducting learning exchange sessions was made possible among the Tagbanua community members. This was done through the reformatting of the Tribal Education Council sessions and leveraging it into a platform for practical learning and discussions about matters relevant to the community life of the Tagbanua.

Through learning sessions and community meetings, Tagbanua community members had the opportunity to organize themselves and establish a core group of education and health champions who can serve as the voice of their community in municipal decision-making processes. As an Indigenous Peoples Organization (IPO), the Tagbanua core group has committed to (a) taking the lead in sustaining operations of the community school, (b) monitoring and helping Barangay officials in ensuring peace and order in the community, and (c) establish linkages with various agencies who can help them grow their resources.

Through the integration of resilience-building components in classroom pedagogy, and with the development of safe learning spaces and opportunities as the focal point, the Tagbanua learners have been observed to be more participative in class activities. In effect, more of the learners have endeavored to stay in school and complete the school year, in comparison to previous school years.

With the meaningful collaboration between Cartwheel and Children’s Hour, indeed, the sky and the sea are the limit for the Tagbanua children and their community!