HIPPY Project

Home Improvement for Parents and Preschool Youngsters

Children naturally engage in exploration, play, and learning from their first and most important teachers -- their parents. The HIPPY home-based preschool education program helps parents acquire new knowledge, confidence, and skills which enhances their capacity to teach as well as the child’s ability to learn. The parents and children love learning together.

HIPPY program provides critical English training to village children during the formative years, 3-5 years old.  Tonga Ministry of Education limits English language training in the early years of school.  As a result, many children are failing to achieve the necessary level of English proficiency to progress through the school system, particularly post-secondary education.  We work with Hippy International who have 40 years of experience providing  support to underprivileged families throughout the world.

Sia Uhila Angilau

"HIPPY is blessing so many families in Tonga. Mothers now see that the saying ‘parents should be the first teachersʻ can literally mean they are teachers. We also have a few fathers who are teaching youngsters. They are blessed because they have the means to teach, their children are learning so much in very little time, they are prioritizing their children’s education more and they get to be the first to complement their child. Many of them tell me how their kids would wake them up early in the morning so they can have "school" already. It’s an exciting time for parents and it is truly building a closer relationship between a parent and the child." – Sia Uhila Angilau (HIPPY Tonga Coordinator) 

Lita Fonokalafi

"For the first time, I am paying our electricity bill! That never happened! I feel like HIPPY is not only helping me to grow professionally, but it is also helping my family because I get to have a say at home now because I help pay the bills. My husband respects me more and I am already planning on going for further education with HIPPY because thereʻs so much out there I can do. HIPPY has helped me to see that. Thank you." -   Lita Fonokalafi (HIPPY Tutor)

Paea Pailate and children

"I’m the kind of parent who tells their child to stay from school if they go to school every day. Haha. Because I feel that their brains will hurt so much from too much schooling. My husband is the same. But with HIPPY, things are changing. I am improving my English; my child is learning so much. I didn’t know I can teach him and he’ll know the shapes, the colors, how to spell his name. I am reading to him and I am supporting the older kids too. That makes us happy so thank you HIPPY." - Paea Pailate (HIPPY Mother)

The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.  -   Maria Montessori