Good schooling bodes well
We strive for the future of vulnerable children
and youths through educational pathways and job training.
Hello Philippines, Hello Future
The results
School-aged children involved
Hours schooling per child
Young people trained in hospitality&catering
Training hours provided in hospitality & catering
2017/2021
Concluded
In collaboration with:
Tondo Community Initiative (TCI)
Buklod Kalinga
THE CHALLENGE: to uphold vulnerable children’s right to education
In recent years, the Philippines has recorded one of the highest growth rates per capita in South East Asia.
The economy is growing, urbanisation and infrastructure are growing, but not everyone is benefitting from this economic boom; over a quarter of the population still living in absolute poverty.
The worst affected by this tragic situation are children, whose families force them to work or even to live on the streets.
The latest figures published by the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) report that 2.1 million children aged between 5 and 17 are exploited through forced labour, with even more engaged in child labour.
At present, one in six Filipino children does not attend school. And this number is on the rise, with a 28% drop-out rate in primary school and soaring up to 59% in secondary school.
For those who do manage to complete their schooling, accessing the job market is so challenging that the youth unemployment rate has reached an alarming 28%, four times that of adults.
What is needed, to harness the opportunities made available by the country’s current phase of economic growth, is a focus on younger people, and meeting their expectations by improving access to quality education, appropriate learning facilities and real job opportunities.
THE GOAL: to tackle school drop-out rates and youth unemployment
The goal of Hello Philippines is to give the most vulnerable children and young people in the country the opportunity to embark on an educational course from which they would have been otherwise excluded.
The project, managed by the Costa Crociere Foundation with the support of qualified partners, guarantees quality education to more than 500 children and young people, undertaking to train and prepare them for a better future, as well as providing 50 of them with vocational courses and job-skills training through Costa Crociere’s direct involvement.
A work induction for these young people will be planned and promoted onboard the Costa fleet at the end of their training.
OUR PROJECT: to prepare young people for the future by bridging school and work
The Hello Philippines project is articulated into three stages that have directly engaged Costa Crociere Foundation’s resources, both financially and in terms of planning the actualisation of a programme aimed at promoting education and job skills to Filipino children and young people.
The first stage involved the support of the Tondo Community Initiative with its experience in educational projects, which reached 500 children aged between 7 and 18.
The school enrolments resulted from a selection process amongst the poorest areas of the Philippines, where children who had never been to school or who needed help to return after having dropped out were selected.
The curriculum comprises daily lessons with weekly tutoring sessions for doing schoolwork, and monthly life-skills sessions.
Students can access the computer lab every day, they receive a school uniform, books and all the supplies needed to follow the lessons.
The participants also get regular health-checks and medicines if required, as well as financial aid towards additional school expenses.
The second stage of the project has and will give 50 youths the opportunity to attend vocational training courses in cookery, baking and pastry making, and hospitality.
Furthermore, the Foundation supports the kids by helping them retrieve their personal records, thus enabling them to become employed both at home and abroad.
The training courses take place in Manila at the Magsaysay Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Arts (MIHCA), the hospitality academy responsible for training Costa Crociere’ crew members, and which constitutes the final stage of the project and aims to reward the most deserving students.
At the completion of the course, the best students will be selected to join the Costa Crociere crew, thus transforming a training course of excellence into a great journey into the future.
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