The Babina Monare Badjao Learning Center is located in Davao City on the island of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines.

Why did we name our school the Babina Monare Badjao Learning Center? Babina Monare was one of ten siblings and the sister of Carmina and Almira Monare who have been a part of my feeding program from the very beginning.

Babina was chosen by her family as the most likely to succeed in school and eventually be able to find employment and earn enough money to help her family out of their current state of poverty. Babina was able to make it to third grade and was the only person in the family who could read and write. They had a long term plan that unfortunately did not end the way they had hoped. Just last year Babina was bitten by a mosquito which carried the Dengue virus. The illness which followed unfortunately took her life. I felt that naming the learning center after her would be an appropriate way to honor the achievements she made during her short time here on Earth and to also have the efforts of her family to have not been in vain.

As I move forward with this project it is my hope that it will gain more support not only from back home in the US, but also here in the local community. I am hoping that as people here start seeing the transition in the children being helped through this program that they will see them in a different light and want to help them improve their lives as well.