Information and news about the USAID Growth with Equity in Mindanao III (GEM 3) Project

Mazna Balabagan, a 3rd-year high school student at the Kapingkong National High School in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, peers into a new binocular microscope acquired by the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) with the help of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program. Under its Education Matching Grant Project (formerly known as EASE), the GEM Program matches peso-for-peso funds raised by PTAs from schools in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao, to establish mini libraries, science laboratories, multi-media centers and other facilities or projects in their schools. To date, approximately 560,000 students in almost 900 schools have benefited from education matching grant partnerships between their PTAs and the GEM Program, which is implemented under the oversight of the Mindanao Development Authority.