MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)--Seeing the most critical sectors in the community that needs to be given attention, the Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) - Philippines maintains its mission of delivering services, especially quality education for children and livelihood for parents in the province of Lanao del Sur.

“The thrust of Islamic Relief is basically the child and the mother because we believe that the most vulnerable sector in all communities is the child and the mother. Ang ina, hindi iyang kakain kung hindi kakain ang anak. Titiisin niyang hindi kumain basta makakain lang ang kanyang anak [The mother, that will not eat if her kid did not. She will endure just for her child]... That is the thrust of Islamic Relief - education for children and livelihood for the mothers,” said IRW-Philippines Area Programme Manager Sittie-Jamairah Disomimba.

She stressed the organization specifically considers education as the sole means for the children to grow and develop capacity to protect themselves.

Disomimba further detailed that Lanao del Sur is noted as the poorest performing province in the Bangsamoro region in terms of this aspect and as such, they see there is still a lot to be done in its system, considering the present circumstances such as the Marawi siege and today’s health crisis which makes the impacted children even more vulnerable. 

To make their service more evident, the IRW-Philippines distributed Monday, November 22, educational equipment under its Sustaining Transformative and Resilient Initiatives in Vulnerable Communities (STRIVEC) Project funded by the IRW-Canada and in partnership with the Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM). 

Here, about 600 basic education learners are given school supplies and allowances for three years with the P3 million budget allocation while P1.3 million is allocated for seven recipient schools in Ditsa-an Ramain town for educational equipment to aid in the new mode of delivery of education during this pandemic.

With the extended aid to their beneficiaries, Disomimba emphasized that they cannot exist the whole time given the assistance will only last for a given period.

“Ang international NGO, we can only do so much. The rest is up to them. That is why our assistance, there is also capacity building na hindi lang gamit [and not just materials]. There is also training. For me, it takes a village to protect and educate a child so lahat tayo may role, hindi lang sa DepEd at LGUs [all of us have a role, not just the DepEd and LGUs]. Each one of us may role at sana magampanan natin lahat ang ating roles [has role and I hope we can live to our roles],” she said. (CRG/PIA-Lanao del Sur)