HOPE CODERS Program

 

$10. That's the minimum daily wage in the Philippines. 26M people earn less than $1.50/day to be classified as "poor". 26M people are 24% of the population. In contrast, a Big Mac costs $3.86, and a Starbucks Americano costs $2.90. You now get an idea of what poor is, Philippine style. For every low-income family, the poverty cycle continues unless at least one child breaks out, usually through college education and a good job.

 

In an attempt to help, I'm experimenting with a program to rescue underprivileged high school graduates from the poverty trap and empower them for gainful work through a boot camp in coding, English, and character development.

 

The boot camp requires a full-time commitment (8 hours daily) over six months. The 8-hour day training consists of 4 hours for coding, 2 hours for English, and 2 hours for character development.

 

First, I'm testing the effectiveness of the coding training with four students over three months. The training covers: HTML, CSS, Javascript, React, Typescript, Python, and MongoDB. By the end of the test period, the students should be able to code a data-driven web app. Whether these skills are the ones to focus on are part of the test. I'll start with four high school graduates who belong to the top 15 students of their class, understand basic English, and don’t have any means to pursue a college education. 

 

The learning methodology consists of mentor-assisted online learning through curated free training videos and documents from the Web, weekly exercises, and online mentoring. Mentors are responsible for the progress of the students.

 

Interested in Changing a Life?

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Someone said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” If you are at a point in your life where you want to make a change for others, this might be your thing. I’m looking for collaborators to a) curate the curriculum for coding, English, or character development, b) design the mentoring process, c) mentor the students, and d) set up and manage the remote learning infrastructure. If you have experience in these areas, you can make a difference.

 

Once we prove that the model works and is repeatable, we will raise funds primarily from non-profits but would be open to for-profit, socially-oriented options.

 

If you want to start some ripples that change lives, theirs and yours, email me at cliff@cliffeala.com. Cliff Eala.