Nineteen-year-old Maylyn Mabasag is the Project Director of the Ata Hostel for students on a mountain slope in the outskirts of Davao City, Philippines. Many girls her age are married with children but Maylyn counts herself fortunate to have been sponsored by ICCM when she was eleven.

Her fondest dream was to go to college as a child. Now thanks to ICCM, she has not only graduated with her Bachelor degree but has gone through the licensure process. This makes her a licensed teacher- the first from the Ata-Matigsalog tribe to achieve this!

All throughout her education, she has worked as Ata Hostel Project Director learning valuable skills that have helped her. She can now make budgets for the 41 children under her care, develop holistic activities, and tutor children of various ages.

Maylyn thanks God for the tough times: “I am so thankful to God who has not neglected me. I thank Him for the hardships I’ve gone through because these hardships challenged me to keep on in completing my education… Hardships cannot keep you from reaching your dreams.” Resolutely determined, Maylyn is proving that Ata children too can dream and walk with God as He turns their dreams into their longed-for reality.