700
kids in the pilot
Twelve schools across Caraga.
Literacy and Language Institute
85% of Filipino kids are struggling to read.
Source: EDCOM 2, the Philippines’ national education commission. December 2025.
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Who we are
We put what works into classrooms.
Our content and technology is provided by Story World — a multilingual platform that helps kids read better. It works in low bandwidth and low power environments.
We work directly with teachers to bring urgently needed multilingual resources into the hands of students.
Hi I’m Mike Barbera. I’m in the Philippines running the program with 50 teachers and 700 students.
The pilot
Where it starts.
50
teachers trained
June 3–5 in Butuan with DepEd Caraga.
The Philippines
where we start
The first twelve schools.
Live
now running
Results published at week 12.
This initiative is in partnership with Indigi.
Give
How you can help.
Your gift helps kids learn to read better. Give what feels right. Any amount makes a difference. Please give on GoFundMe.
See more information
Why 4.5 million? Show me the math.
85% of Filipino kids in Grades 1-3 — nearly 4.5 million children — are struggling readers today. Our goal is to get all of them back on track to read at grade level. Source: EDCOM 2, December 2025 (based on DepEd CRLA assessment, SY 2025-2026).
Why Caraga, why now?
The Philippines is in a national energy emergency. Diesel hit ₱130 a litre. Local governments are running on a four-day work week. Caraga sits in the typhoon corridor and loses fifteen to forty school days a year to storms. We provide a program that runs entirely offline and can keep reading instruction alive when everything else stops.
Who’s actually doing the work
- Evangeline Caratao. DepEd Caraga senior school head. Eleven years teaching K-3. Master’s in IT. Front-of-house Filipino educator.
- Mike Barbera. Director, L&L Institute.
- Cynthia Barbera. Founder and CEO, StoryWorld. Customizing the curriculum and StoryWorld platform for the Philippines.
- Om Gnawali. CTO, StoryWorld. Building the offline-first deployment stack.
- Vice Mayor Jane Plaza, Carmen LGU. Partner in governmental capacity. Says: “Carmen needs a literacy continuity model that helps our struggling readers and works through typhoons. We are committing local support to make that real.”
What the GoFundMe launch fund buys
- Regional content servers near the Philippines — $5,000
- Technology and operations support — $3,000
- Mike’s deployment flight — $2,000
Out of scope this campaign
- Native mobile app build.
- Personalized curriculum development.
- Compensation for Mike, Cynthia, or Om. Their time is in-kind.
- Valued at over $100,000.
Governance & related-party disclosure
Mike Barbera founded L&L Institute and works for StoryWorld as part of the family business. StoryWorld donates content and the offline learning platform to L&L. All related-party transactions are reported on GAP’s annual IRS Form 990, Schedule L.
Important statistics
1
Kids not reading by end of Grade 3 are 4x more likely to leave school without a diploma. The window closes at age 9.
2
Fix reading by Grade 3, or it almost never gets fixed. Less than 1% of Filipino 12th graders read at grade level today.
3
The Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 nations in reading on PISA 2022. The next results come in 2026.
This is why we start at K-3 — and why Caraga.
Our next exciting initiative
Kids learn to read from their own tribal stories.
Across Caraga, tribal stories are disappearing — the elders are the last generation that knows them. We record those stories, translate them into English and Tagalog, illustrate them, and turn them into the picture books K-3 kids in those communities learn to read from. The stories don’t just survive — they teach the next generation.
Coming soon...
$10,000 · Tax-deductible via GAP
- A bilingual picture book built from a story recorded with tribal elders
- Your name on the inside cover: “Sponsored by you”