'Paint your roofs white for greener tomorrow'

CEBU, Philippines - Paint your roofs white for a greener tomorrow.

This is what some 100 volunteers were trying to tell the people when they painted 20 roofs in Barangay Luz yesterday as one of the ways in raising awareness on climate change.

The project was the initiative of Silliman University in Dumaguete City with the involvement of University of San Carlos in Cebu, Central Philippine University in Iloilo, together with Smart and World Bank.

In Cebu, the painting of the roofs was spearheaded by Biology students of USC namely, Kimberly Lucero, Ferdinand Zapate and Geraldine Cercado. They targeted to paint 20 roofs in Barangay Luz with the aid of more than 100 volunteers from USC, University of San Jose-Recoletos, youth from the barangay and the beneficiaries of the project.

Cercado said the painting could reduce “heat island” effect as the white surface reflects the sun’s rays back through the atmosphere and into space, hence the area around it cools too.

“Eighty percent of heat will be released back to the atmosphere so cooler na ang environment,” Cercado said.

After all 20 roofs are painted, the three will evaluate its effect through gathering of testimonials from the beneficiaries. They will also compare the urban heat before and after the houses are painted white.

“This is the advocacy of our company…to contribute something on the environment,” said Saul Suello of the NVIRO paint, the exclusive paint supplier for the project. The company said paint which is 100 percent environment-friendly.

Barangay Luz was chosen as the beneficiary of the project because it is considered as the most environment-friendly barangay in the city because of its best practices in solid waste management and other projects that are beneficial to the environment.

Meanwhile, as a way of teaching children the value of environment and encouraging parents to give more support to their kids’ skills in painting, True Value Paint conducted on-the-spot painting contest in Ayala Center Friday afternoon.

With the theme, “Protect, Preserve and Love Mother Earth”, True Value Paint sponsored the activity that was participated by at least 30 kids aged seven to 12 from different parts of Cebu.

A seven-year-old boy from Talamban, Chrisson Gabriel Espinas won the first place while Denise Francine Ngchee 11, from Cebu City got the second spot and Lian Chan, 10, from Lahug, garnered the third prize.

True Value Marketing Manager Milani Castañeda said they were the ones who provided the materials to the participants. (FREEMAN NEWS)