“Education inequity isn’t generally a very sexy topic,” says Jaton Zulueta, Founder and Executive Director of AHA. Back in 2018, the team consisted of Jaton and two other part-time teachers. But their approach to formation has always been more than academic: They involve the parents and community leaders because they believe that change starts both at home and in school.
Context & Branding
In the Philippines, only 2% of public school students with poor profiles finish college. Compared to those in private schools, public school children are at a disadvantage. They deal with overcrowded classrooms, lessened learning hours, and sometimes troubled home environments which can be impediments to learning and development.
Our approach to the brand and our partnership was to involve ourselves in AHA. We spent some time regularly volunteering at the center, getting to know their methods and their students. The result is a brand that reflects their mantra: Anyone can be anything. The brand is easy to use and reproduce, with the use of free fonts and other visual elements that are easy to implement.
And A Half’s Process
But more than just developing a brand, we tried to identify and highlight areas where design could solve existing challenges. One such challenge was volunteer retention. Our 2018 interns, Una Gil, Zoe de Ocampo, Cody Jalandoni, and Roy Corvera, discovered that while the students were consistent, volunteers weren’t. To help with retention, we developed a pocket-sized volunteer kit that encourages volunteers to get to know their students and to map out their volunteer journey week per week.
“What And A Half gives is partnership. That feeling that they aren’t just your service providers, but the feeling that they’re part of your team. The thoughtfulness and the willingness to immerse and find out what AHA’s design problems were was something I appreciated. Taking time to understand the complexities, the problems, and the struggles of our intervention.”
Message from our partner, Jaton Zulueta
Today, AHA has expanded to two physical centers: The original hub in Poblacion and one in Tondo, Manila. Jaton went on to become one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardees in 2018 and an Obama Leader for the Asia and the Pacific. They’ve served over 19,000 students since 2009, and have now increased their classes to 8 hours a week.
Work From Hope
When the lockdown was declared, nobody knew what to do. But Jaton knew that even under lockdown, education should not stop. In March, Jaton called us to create a visual identity for Eskwelang Pamilya, AHA’s learning program that is facilitated on Facebook Messenger free.
Not every public student has a laptop or has access to a stable internet connection, a reality that reflects not only the education inequity in this country but the wider wealth gap at large. which is why Jaton wanted to work with the least common denominator: free Facebook Messenger. Even under lockdown, learning should not stop. He and his team designed purely text-based lessons so teachers could create virtual classrooms on Messenger in order to meet the kids where they are. Learn more about Eskwelang Pamilya through our social design event.
Since than, Jaton has not stopped working. He knew that his small team couldn’t address the national education gap, which is why he started Tulong Eskwela, the AHA Teacher Training program which supports public school teachers to prepare for distance learning via Facebook Messenger classrooms while using DepEd’s learning packets. Learn more about Tulong Eskwela through our social design event.
As of October 2020, AHA has taught over 462 lessons via Facebook Messenger, via 6 messenger classrooms with 30-40 active students in each of them. They have also launched over 165 hours of educational shows on Facebook with a reach of over 16,000 students.
Moreover, AHA Learning Center is now the largest teacher training body in the country, having trained over 54,000 teachers to prepare for distance learning.
But Jaton isn’t satisfied. He says that he believes that students belong in a classroom with a teacher. But he knows that for the time being, we cannot give up on our kids because we cannot give up on their futures. Mangarap tayo ng gising, Jaton likes to say. Dream and hope with our eyes wide open.
