Despite its challenges, the pandemic has made it abundantly clear that our calling as a children's book publisher is to help enrich the lives of children through value-laden books.
Hiyas, meaning “gem” in Filipino, has been growing a list of more than 200 children’s books since 1992. Our titles include illustrated books on Christian values, Bible stories, health, character building, and more. We hope that through Hiyas books, children can enter different worlds, meet new friends, go on quests, and win victories. We pray that the wonder of reading will stay with the children long after they’ve grown up.
Since the pandemic, various schools and organizations have reached out to us to help address the reading difficulties prevalent among young children and teens. The "Box of Gems" project was born because of this need.
Each Box of Gems contains around 100 curated children’s books to be distributed to schools and communities that have limited supplemental reading materials.
We desire to reach as many children, especially in remote parts of the country, but we can’t do this without your help. With this, we invite you to bring hope to children through these Gems.
There are 3 ways to give:
Give a Box of Gems to OMF Lit's beneficiaries (A Box of Gems is worth PhP12,000).
Give a Box of Gems to a beneficiary of your choice (Send us the details of your beneficiary so we could assist in curating the perfect Box of Gems for you).
Pool funds with other donors for books to be given to OMF Lit's existing beneficiaries.
If you would like to partner with us, you can sign up through this form.
Do you have other beneficiaries in mind? Let us know and we can help send a Box of Gems for them too! Message us at Facebook or Instagram or email
us at share@omflit.com.
Here are our beneficiaries that have already received our Box of Gems:
DUQUIT HIGH SCHOOL, Mabalacat Pampanga
Duquit is a low-income barangay in the city of Mabalacat, Pampanga. Not only do a lot of Duquit students have difficulty reading, they also find it difficult to stay in school. Some have to leave school for work because their parents had lost their jobs during the pandemic. Duquit High School has around 800 Grades 7 and 8 students and many of them have reading scores below their grade levels. Because the school could not provide them with supplementary reading materials, teachers go out of their way to source books through donation drives.
HINAPLANON NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, Iligan City
During the pandemic, this city high school in Northern Mindanao launched the pantREAD program, where teachers visit struggling students in the barangays. They conduct storytelling and reading activities for children, while parents attend a workshop on proper intervention and ways to promote literacy at home. Through the PantREAD program, communities receive starter reading rescue kits. Each kit contains a book, dictionary, pens, and other educational materials. The school welcomes donations for this program all year round.
AETA COMMUNITIES in Pampanga
In a low-income community, books are not regarded as a need. We have identified four Aeta communities in Pampanga in this situation. This year, we hope to give a total of 200 children in these communities various books and other learning materials.
