WHEN public school children meet her for the first time, they mistake her for a Korean actress.

"Picture tayo!" the young kids shriek and she gladly indulges them. When everyone settles down, she reads them a story.

Meet Cindy Yang, the new ambassadress of the Ronald McDonald House of Charities (RMHC).

Yang is the lovely wife of Kenneth Yang, president of McDonald's. A mother of three, Yang is childlike, her enthusiasm infectious as she talks about her newest baby and advocacy-the Bright Minds Read (BMR) program, one of the flagship programs of RMHC.

"I have always wanted to get involved in RMHC, but I committed myself to mothering my children hands-on," she begins.

Since last year, Yang has wanted a more active role in RMHC but health concerns got in the way. Her eldest son contracted dengue, and after he got well, she came down with pneumonia, and then shingles. "It must have been all the stress."

The 40something Yang says her children and their education have always been top priority. Like any proud mother, she rattles off their achievements, foremost of which was the fact that her eldest son graduated valedictorian in elementary two years ago.

"My children have been very blessed in the sense that we have been able to send them to good schools and provide them the tools to succeed. I've always believed that education, more than anything else, is the key to a better future."

Through the BMR program, Yang bids to bring the same hope to countless children who have the potential but are sorely lacking in resources.

"We want to focus specifically on the importance of reading as this is the integral tool and prerequisite in teaching any other subject and any other skill. Reading expands the critical and creative minds of children which make it an indispensable value in education."

Partner of DepEd

McDonalds has partnered with the Department of Education. Dr. Fely Pado, an expert on beginning reading from University of the Philippines Elementary, is helping create a beginning readers' tool kit for public schoolchildren and teachers.

BMR helps children develop a genuine love for reading, from Grade 1 onward through the development of comprehension and critical thinking skills, correct grammatical structures and decoding know-how. Each story presented emphasizes Filipino values.

RMHC started BMR in 2002. It is in 2,000 schools in 17 regions, including in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Yang proudly shares that as of the most recent National Achievement Test data for schoolyear 2007-2008, the average overall grade in all major subjects among BMR schools was 64.81 with the highest grade in Filipino, averaging 73.18 for the national level.