We have come across a young boy that lives nearby and needs much help. His name is Romnick and he lives in Digos, Mindanao with nine other family members. We will make him the focus of our nonprofit as we attempt to help him overcome crushing poverty.
Romnick is 14 years old and is the oldest in his family, yet is still in the first grade due to poor attendance. Romnick many times needs to skip school to help work in the small family garden so they have food. He is also expected to help with the other choirs so the family can survive. The family does not have enough money for a school uniform that is required of all students. While one can attend school without a uniform, not having one draws attention from the other students.
Romnick has one sister, but also lives with four other first cousins. The four cousins’ parents have abandoned them. In total there are four adults and six children living in a small one room house called a kubo. A kubo is a small house built with coconut tree bark and leaves. This small house is where ten people live.
His dad works odd jobs at very low pay, usually about one dollar a day, which is not enough to feed and care for the family. His mother helps the grandmother with the younger children and the grandfather also does odd jobs around town for very low pay. This is his grandmother’s house that they are living in, and he has been living there all his life.
Romnick and the other children have never been to a doctor or dentist. They have also never had their eyes checked for vision. They do not have the basic necessities of life. If we can help Romnick and get him up to speed on his education and to graduate from high school, he will be able to move out of poverty and better able to help his family. So by helping Romnick, we will help the entire family.
Hi Kevin, following up on my comment on 2.0 about Romnick. My comment was probably too conceptual in nature, so I will try to be more practical in my suggestions here. From an instructional point of view, I would:
- do a short reading assessment to see where his basic literacy skills are – Look for a Word List Reading Level Assessment online to use as a model. What you want to do is ask him to read a simple set of word lists, with each list representing what you view as different levels of practical reading ability – difficult to create, if primary language is not english, but important to get a good handle on this as a basic piece of information to guide instructional decision-making
- do a brief math assessment to find out similar information – where is he with his basic skills
- find out if it is simply absence that was used as a determiner of holding the child back each year. It should not be, assessment of his real knowledge and learning skills should be, but, specifically in developing countries, it is rare that schools know how to go through this process. Instead, they rely on simple things, like attendance or a single summative test to determine pass or fail.
- He will need to have intensive one-on-one support on a daily basis, in addition to his regular school day, to make up some of what he has missed. This daily support should recognize the learning levels you determine from some of the above simple assessments, and should focus on a couple of things. 1) following up – every day – on what he did in school that day, and making sure he doesn’t continue to fall behind from where he is, and 2) moving him forward beyond what he is learning in school – e.g. develop some kind of “theme-based” ongoing individual project for learning that helps him engage in reading, writing, speaking, listening, product creation (hands-on) around something that is of interest and importance to him. This is the place where his learning skills deficit can be made up, and the kind of thing that will keep him motivated to comply and focus on the other aspect of his education – what is likely the more traditional content/fact in-and-out expectation of the school.
- beyond that, many times just having a mentor who focuses on his needs, checks in, provides things to do and things to read (with consistent follow-up CRITICAL) can work wonders
- helping the family stand on its feet without excessive responsibilities for the child is also, of course, key – as the child needs the space and time to actually give it a good shot – sounds like that has been the fundamental problem.
I have a very dear friend in Tanzania who has a 10-year old who has been in second grade for three years now, for many of the same reasons, and our goal at this time is to just clear the pathway for the child – get him in and keep him in school, provide the individual emotional support he needs to not get discouraged and give up on himself, and get the family in better financial straits so that he is not pulled away from the essential experiences he needs to grow up self-sufficient.
Please let me know if I can provide any resources, tools, ideas for some out-of-school project-based learning, or just a place to process what is going on. This situation is so familiar to me, I think I could be of use. Good on you for making this a priority. Like they say . . . “Save one life and you save the world entire.”
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Amy,
Thanks for the very informative comment. I think at this point, the most important thing we can do now is to show the school that we are interested in helping him and to have someone check his progress often. I hired a tutor to check and review his school work. I also bought a light and a small desk for home that I will take over today. I’m going to visit him soon.
Romnick has missed too many days and this is why he is way behind. I feel confident that we can help him by showing his teacher and the school that we are interested in his progress as we (SPCS) are willing to help. When I visited his class, there were other older students in his class that were a few grades behind. I keep thinking: one can’t learn on an empty belly, so that’s where we need to start.
Another important point you made is we need to take the burden off of him as far as family choirs and see to it that he has the time and resources to complete school. We are here for another three weeks so I’m trying to get things set up so things continue after we leave. We need to get him and his family moved up so they can keep all the kids in school all the time.
When you helped the student in Tanzania, what was the hardest problem to overcome? Did you succeed?
Thanks
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