About us

A:  Every Little Feet & Friends Start Up preschool is established within a barangay community, with the endorsement of the barangay leadership.  Each school is connected to a local church that serves the barangay community.

A:   The Little Feet school is privately funded through generous financial partners who choose to fund a child each month.  It cost $35 a month to cover all the cost of one child.  A few schools have school sponsors that pay the cost to set up the school and the monthly cost of classroom education for a year.  Barangay parents live on a very low subsistence income. They cannot afford to fund a child’s preschool education.

A:  A barangay is sometime referred to as a barrio. This is the smallest administrative community structure of government established by the Philippine government.  A barangay includes a defined audience, has an established governing structure, and is expected to meet the core community needs of the population that calls a specific barangay home.

A:  There is an established selection process.  Months prior to a preschool opening, the teacher must meet with prospective students and parents from the barangay.  This process includes interviews with parents, outlining expectations for the parents, and a child evaluation to determine if the child is ready for instruction.  Each preschool is limited to 16 children.

A:  Every Lead Teacher must be a qualified and certificated teacher Bachelor in Education graduate, preferably in Early Childhood Education. The teachers are required to teach an authorized value-based core curriculum, manage the educational process, utilize parents where appropriate in the process, and teach core Biblical values that are foundational to child’s life-long success in learning.

A:   The focus of each school is to help jumpstart exceptional education for children of a barangay that could never afford preschool.  The goal is to help each enrolled child experience love and encouragement, excel in learning, understand school discipline, and develop core leadership skills that will help him/her get a head start in public education.

A:  The curriculum of the Little Feet & Friends school provides learning experiences to help children develop in the following essential areas:

• Physical: development includes Gross Coordination (P.E.) and Fine Motor Coordination (Creative Art Work and Writing);
• Social: development of inter-personal relationship with family members and the community (Social Studies);
• Emotional: development of love and respect for God, self, and others (Values Education);
• Cognitive: development of the child’s reasoning ability and skills in Number Readiness (Science and Math);
• Aesthetic: helping the child express his emotions through creative arts, music, dance and poetry (Arts).

Additionally, Little Feet & Friends celebrates special programs during the year such as Nutrition Emphasis Month, Linggo ng Wika, Children and Family Day, Christmas, and United Nations Day.  Educational trips are also scheduled to visit community helpers at the Municipal Office, Fire Department, Hospital, Police Station, Public Market and Radio stations.  Closing Exercises is always a special day when the community is invited to join in the celebration. 

A:  Each preschool runs for a four-hour period.  During that time children are involved in eight subjects in creative ways suitable for a preschooler. There is an emphasis on discipline, learning core Biblical values, respecting one another, socialization, following instructions, and being rewarded for work and good behavior.  The lead teacher oversees the instruction and activities with the help of a teacher’s aide.

A:  Ninety percent of every gift given is directed to the budget expenses of the schools and helping preschoolers thrive in learning.  Ten percent of this amount is reserved as contingency funding so school leadership can promptly respond to emergency or unexpected needs of the schools or the barangay communities. 

Ten percent of every gift given through the U.S. is allocated to new school expansion, administration, building awareness, and fund development. 

A:  In the first decade 10 schools were established.  The exceptional success of these preschools has got the attention of Philippine leaders. 

Over 400 impoverished barangay are candidates for a Little Feet and Friends Preschool. The immediate focus for 2024-2025 is to open an additional 5 preschools, based on the successful model of the first 10 schools.  If this goal is achieved we will seek to accelerate expansion to an additional 100 schools by the end of 2023. Expansion is solely dependent on securing school sponsors, raising child scholar sponsorships, management infrastructure, sustainability of the distinctives and brand, and engaged partnerships with Philippine educational and business leaders.

A:  Two partnering organizations make Little Feet and Friends preschools possible. In the U.S., Little Feet and Friends is an educational outreach of New Hope Community Church in Temecula, CA—Tax ID 44-4454650. A governing board oversees standards, branding, management, fund development, public awareness, and fund development within the United States.

A parallel registered partnering organization called the Little Feet and Friends Foundation is based in the Philippines.  This foundation, made up of Filipino business leaders, oversees school expansion, establishes standards and protocols, protects the distinctives and brand, raises funding from within the Philippines, and seeks matching grants from funds raised through the partnering non-profit based in the U.S.  Funding efforts are a collaborative joint effort between these two organizations. Considerable funding must be raised in the Philippines in order to see funds released from outside the Philippines.

A:  All the Little Feet and Friends preschools are managed from the Philippines by the Little Feet and Friends Foundation.  The managing leadership are seasoned educators and business leaders that reside in the Philippines.   Standards and compliance, protocols, staffing, certification of teachers, curriculum, school oversight, and fund development are under the authority of the Little Feet and Friends Foundation.

A:  Without apology, these preschools adhere to and teach foundational Christian values.  The leadership believes that the tenets of the Christian faith are important to building character and equipping children and parents for effective community service. Each school is associated with a church in the barangay where the school is established. The pastor of the church serves as site leader, represents the school in the community, and engages with the parents in studies that will increase effective parenting. 

This being said, the school teaches state-approved curriculum which a preschooler needs to master,  preparing him/her to one day give leadership in the barangay community.  Students are not required to be of the Christian faith to attend the preschool, but they are expected to participate in all aspects of the preschool curriculum.

A:  Each parent of a student is expected to participate in meaningful aspects of a child’s education.  The child understands that parents and teachers work together in partnership. Parents help with a child’s homework, serve as volunteers, are members of a parent-teacher counsel, attend state-certified parenting classes designed to help parents be better parents, Bible Study and help hosting special themed events for the children and the community.  Each parent signs a covenant with the teacher so mutual expectations are clearly understood.

A:  The goal is to establish preschools in hundreds of barangays throughout the Philippines where there is significant financial hardship.  While many barangay communities have already requested a preschool be started, many factors must be considered. Factors include: a church site that will provide adequate dedicated space for the school, a pastor who understands the mission of the preschool and agrees to dedicate required time to serve as the site leader to the community and to the parents, agreements of understanding with the barangay council, identifying potential students, recruiting qualified lead teachers and needed aids, and required funding to set up the school and to sustain the school each month. 

A:  Once a preschool location has been identified and leadership agreements have been formalized the site location must be prepared for the school.  A prerequisite is securing the needed funding to open a preschool. Based on a decade of experience in opening new schools, school leadership know what is required in order to open a new school with a view toward long-term sustainability. 

While the space for the school is provided by the hosting church, there is considerable investment and work to be done. This typically includes construction to accommodate the school and play area, painting, school room furnishings, technology to support and enhance learning, installing a strong internet connection, recruiting required staff, vetting students, purchasing curriculum to support learning, obtaining needed supplies, and acquiring school uniforms for the students. This process often requires at least two to four months after the decision has been made to open a Little Feet & Friends preschool.  With few exceptions, the initial costs incurred to open a new school is $3600.

A:  Opening a school requires early funding.  Running a preschool is another matter.  This is considered ongoing costs to insure the school runs effectively each day. A Little Feet & Friends preschool cannot exceed 16 students.  By state educational standards, every class must have a certified teacher and one aid.  Little Feet teachers receive a competitive wage, health insurance and retirement—similar to public school teachers.   With all costs considered, total operating costs are $6,720 per year, or $560 per month.

A:  Teachers are expected to maintain their teaching credentials through continuing education.  In addition, periodic site visits by the Little Feet & Friends schools’ supervisor to observe the teacher working with her students is scheduled.  Constructive feedback and collaboration with the supervisor are ongoing. Proactive engagement addresses issues as they arise and helps sustain superior best practices.  All the teachers and aids meet together at least quarterly or as needed for planning, continuing education, and peer interaction.

A:  The costs incurred to run a preschool is spread over a 12-month period.  While school is in session for ten months, the teaching personal are busy throughout the year with many time-consuming school related responsibilities.  Little Feet teaching staff, like other public and private school teachers, are on a year-round contract.   When they are not teaching in the classroom the staff provide leadership to a Vacation Bible Schools for the barangay, recruit and screen new students for the upcoming year, are involved in the barangay community, participate in continuing education classes, plan for the following school year, and take a needed break before the preschool resumes. 

A: A class sponsor is encouraged to develop a team of friends to become financial sponsors whenever possible. Little Feet and Friend leaders help partners build a team of supporters to sustain the school.  The intent is to keep a school open for years after the initial investment has been made.  Every effort is made to find new financial partners. A sponsor can choose levels of financial involvement:  sponsor a child for a month, sponsor an entire class for a day, sponsor a class for a month, or sponsors a class for an entire year.  Faithful financial support from partners throughout the year is critical to the success of this preschool strategy.