Mother Candida: EQ center like no other
"Special children are given to extraordinary parents." This is the premise that I kept on telling myself. In the real society though, people see these group of children as an outcast. The public usually scrutinizes them leaving them helpless. Only few of us understand their nature and needs. Like most kids, these special angels have the right to enjoy the amenities of life including good education. The reason why Mother Candida EQ Center for Children was founded three years ago.
The small apartment near the city's respected marine school serves as a newly found hope for the poor kids and the special children. The apartment was converted into a unique learning center that follows an inclusion program designed to admit the mentally handicapped. Mother Candida is the only center that incorporates activities that hones the emotional intelligence and the only center that integrates the special children with the regular pupils.
In a study conducted by Daniel Goleman, printed on his book "Emotional Intelligence", it was said that EQ was far more important than Intelligence Quotient (IQ). The Vision of Mother Candida EQ Center for Children (MCEQCC) was based on Goleman's theory. The center believes that an early childhood education center should provide the core learning experiences of EQ combined with the academic teaching and must prepare the kids to enter formal elementary education. With that they are intellectually ready and they can respond to the complex, multi-faceted and changing educational as well as personal needs of very young children.
"Mother Candida is not a school. We are a center for children to learn. We make use of the eclectic approach to childhood that is why I came out with an EQ program," says Sister Sandra Alejo of Hijas de Jesus, the Center and Program Director of Mother Candida Center as well as the Executive Director of The Iloilo Mercy Foundation for the Handicapped.
The Iloilo Mercy Foundation for the Handicapped (IMFHI) is a non-stock, charitable, non-government foundation approved by the Department of Social Welfare and Development that was established to promote the welfare of persons with disabilities especially that of the physically and mentally handicapped children. IMFHI is the force behind the Mother Candida EQ Center.
The center accepts regular pre-schoolers (2.5 years and up) and mentally-challenged special children. They have three dedicated volunteer mentors. Teacher Marivic Manggao is the one in-charged with the Prep pupils while Teacher Liza May Huertas and her sister Teacher Evalyn Huertas, supervises the Nursery and Kinder pupils, respectively. These teachers follow a specific learning program, designed by Sister Sandra, that includes supervised play - 20 minutes individual play and 20 minutes group play, individual work, normalization time, snack time, nap time, story time, academic time, and indoor games. Individual works are more of psychomotor exercises comprised of pre-writing exercises, color/shape-identification, coloring activities, tracing shapes, drawing of body parts, and pre-reading exercises. They concentrate on five learning area such as pre-writing, math, pre-reading, science, and value formation. Classes start at 9:00 am and end at 12:00 noon.
To maintain the quality of education and supervision, the center is open to a maximum of 25 pupils.
In Mother Candida, Quality education are given for free. The parents of the enrolled kids would come to the center and help the mainstay housekeeper, Edith Palicte, in preparing the snacks for their little ones. Some of these mothers would offer to wash Sister Sandra's clothes in return.
"I am now developing a program and I hope that next year I will be able to publish my work," she explained. Despite an accident that caused her weakness last September 24, 2004, she struggles to save the learning center from closing. She often goes to fast food chains and leaves donation cans -- the love bank. After a few months, she would perpetually collect the canisters. The amounts that were collected sustains the center.
"When we have funds, I would immediately buy books, puzzles and other learning materials for the children. I'd like to give the children the best that we have. Ayoko ng salitang pwede na or sige lang. I always ask myself - is this the best? The children deserves the best," the 67-year-old social worker and nun tearfully remarked.
Currently, the Mother Candida EQ Center for Children has 14 regular pupils and 6 special children. They are still accepting applicants. Interested parents may visit Sister Sandra at 150 Interior, MH Del Pilar Street, Iloilo City.
So the next time you see the white canisters, don't hesitate to share a penny. Let's all help build an intellectually and emotionally intelligent community.