(CNN) -- In an age where many school children are ferried to school in their parents' SUV, the idea of having to swim to school over open ocean or wade through muddy mangrove swamps to get to class might seem part of a cruel and long-forgotten past. But in some of the fishing communities near Zamboanga City in the Philippines, swimming half a mile of open water in school uniform while carrying school books tied up in plastic bags on their heads is still a daily reality. "Their bags notebooks and papers always get soaked. If we forget to put their things in a plastic bag we have to hang their things out later to dry," said Ruhayna Mawadi, the mother of one of the pupils at Talon Talon Elementary School. "Many of the children don't graduate and that's very sad and hard for us -- we want them to graduate because it's for their future."
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Children in remote villages in southern Philippines have to swim to school
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Families can't afford second boat to ferry children to class
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Foundation supported by social networks started called Yellow Boats of Hope
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School boats and more social initiatives have transformed the prospects of whole villages
"Around @placeholder they had to wade to school from their stilt houses where their parents are seaweed farmers.