Creating a Community of Storytellers and Readers

In line with its vision of “every Filipino child a reader” and its mission to reach young readers of a community, the Adarna Group Foundation, Inc. (AGFI) aspires to empower storytellers and educators of a community  with its Handang Magbasa program. The program takes a  bottom-up approach to promoting early literacy among 3 to 4 year old children by working with and through child development workers (CDWs) and daycare parents. 

AGFI recognizes that the learning journey of children starts at home, with parents being the first teachers. From there, children’s skills  develop and flourish as much as their parents and daycare teachers allow. For that reason, Handang Magbasa targets these two groups as learning partners to undergo capacity and competency building. Handang Magbasa  emphasizes the training component as well as the provision of reading materials as  key factors of the program.

Effective Storytelling workshop with ASKI School of Knowledge, Inc. teachers, held in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija

The training of CDWs is divided into two major components: Panimula sa Handang Magbasa  consisting of five  modules with twenty-one  videos and Book-Based Instruction  consisting of four  modules with fifteen videos. These modules discuss concepts of reading readiness, preparing a classroom using book-based learning, and providing CDWs with possible teaching interventions. CDWs are provided with a Handang Magbasa Child Development Workers Manual and each child development center is also given  forty Adarna House big books. Meanwhile, training for daycare parents is broken down into four modules consisting of thirteen videos which focus on empowering parents to teach their children and create a culture of reading at home. Parents’ kits are distributed to enrolled families, containing Ang Batang Handang Magbasa Parents’ Manual along with four Adarna House picture books to help jumpstart the habit of reading at home. 

Learning sessions such as workshops and webinars are conducted to underscore the training provided to the learning partners and to generate meaningful discussions within the community. The ideal implementation period of the program is a full academic year.

To date, Handang Magbasa has worked with 7  partner organizations and LGUs, trained 75  child development workers and 1,356 parents, and distributed 10,286 reading materials.

Program implementation of Handang Magbasa does not rest on AGFI alone as it continues to work with partner organizations to bring the program to various communities. 

The LBC Hari ng Padala Foundation, Inc. (LBCF) is one such partner.  In 2022, LBCF and AGFI brought Handang Magbasa to the municipalities of Anao and San Clemente, Tarlac as well as to 9 daycare centers of Kagabay Foundation. The partnership is now in its second year with Handang Magbasa being implemented in three municipalities: Anao and Ramos, Tarlac, and Samal, Bataan. The partnership includes sessions with LBC Express volunteers  conducting both online and face-to-face storytelling sessions and story-based activities for daycare students.

In March 2023, AGFI partnered with ASKI School of Knowledge, Inc. and implemented the Handang Magbasa Program in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. Over four months of  implementation, the program was able to reach three  teachers and twenty-one  daycare parents. Meaningful workshops on effective storytelling, classroom management tips, and encouraging play at home were conducted as further  training. 

By focusing on training and guiding learning partners to become effective storytellers and teachers,  AGFI through Handang Magbasa hopes  to empower community members who are key to making children readers for life.