4 schools get new buildings

CEBU, Philippines - The Aboitiz Foundation Inc. and the Aklat, Gabay, Aruga tungo sa Angat at Pag-asa Program (AGAPP) turned over four kindergarten school buildings in Metro Cebu and in San Remigio as part of the last leg of the AGAPP “Silid Pangarap” Kindergarten School Building Program.

The beneficiaries were the Don Calixto Yongco Sr. Elementary School in Tawason, Mandaue City; Garing Elementary School, Consolacion; Sangat Elementary School, San Fernando; and Punta Elementary School in San Remigio.

These schools will be getting new kindergarten classrooms complete with books and other reference materials donated by National Bookstore and furniture donated by Uratex.

Aboitiz Foundation President Jon Ramon Aboitiz and AGAPP chairwoman Pinky-Aquino Abellada led the ceremony. Joining them are executives of Aboitiz Group companies, officials from the Department of Education and local government units and principals of the beneficiary schools.

“What we do here is a collaborative effort. It is everybody working together to achieve a goal. The concept of AGAPP is very brilliant, the children who are not successful in education have a tendency to drop out but if you have a good experience in the beginning, you have much better and stronger chance of succeeding and continuing your studies,” said Aboitiz during the press conference yesterday at the Cebu Country Club.

AGAPP Foundation will provide teacher’s training for all AGAPP kindergarten teachers tapped by DepEd.

They started the turnover the other day and today, they will attend the turnover in Punta Elementary School, an adopted school of an Aboitiz executive located in San Remigio, which will also be attended by Mayor Jay Olivar, barangay officials, principal and students of the beneficiary school.

Yesterday, Abellada and Aboitiz along with the officials of the Visayan Electric Company, Aboitiz Foundation, AGAPP Foundation and Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado attended the turnover in Consolacion.

They also went to Mandaue City and were joined by Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, Aboitiz Land President and CEO Andoni Aboitiz and DepEd officials.

Abellada said that they have 400 classrooms already and need 600 more to reach their target of building one thousand classrooms.

“I’m confident that we will be able to achieve this goal of reaching a thousand schools. We got a grant from Asian Development Bank, which gives us funds to track so at least the schools will be piloting this system. We will track them and have a report on how these schools are doing and duplicate it to be given to our donors. Para naman they (donors) will know that there money is doing something positive,” said Abellada.

She said once they will reach the target, they will not stop, instead will still continue to build more since this is one of the major problems of the education system here in the country.

Last year, the Aboitiz Foundation and AGAPP forged a partnership to construct 134 classrooms all over the country within three years. As of June 2012, Aboitiz Foundation has turned over a total of 94 classrooms. Forty more classrooms will be constructed in 2013.

“Aboitiz has been our very early partners nuong nagsisimula pa lang kami. They really trusted us when we were still really small. Without their initial support hindi kami lalaki ng ganito. I continue to thank them for the trust. It is our vow not let our partners down. We’re all dedicated volunteers who are so passionate about it,” said Abellada, confirming that their funds came from private entities.

The beneficiaries were chosen based on the list of schools which needs classrooms that DepEd submitted to AGAPP Foundation. And with regards to the maintenance and security they left it to the parents and the beneficiary schools.     - THE FREEMAN