Robredo calls for donations of uniforms, school supplies for Marawi students

MANILA, Philippines — The children of Marawi need school supplies and uniforms even as the government works to build classrooms and school buildings in the battle-scarred capital of Lanao del Sur, Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday.

Robredo, who had just returned from turning over houses and school buildings through her office's Angat Buhay program, said on her weekly radio program that the students of Marawi need more than just classrooms. Angat Buhay works with the private sector for its programs.

"What they badly need there are school kits, mga school supplies, uniforms. These children lost their things, even their clothes, in the fighting," she said in Filipino, referring to the Marawi Siege from May to October 2017.

"In fact, in the first school that we went to, Mapandi (Elementary School), the principal pointed out that the children there wore different school uniforms," she said, explaining that most of the uniforms were formerly used by public schools in Makati.

"I think the used uniforms from Makati were donated by the (district) supervisor," she said. 

She added that she hopes her supporters, and the listeners of the radio show, could donate school uniforms that can still be used. "They have many needs. Shoes, and even sandals or slippers. There is a lot we can give to help."

She exlained that residents who were at the schools that she and her staff visited said that even those whose homes were not destroyed in the months of fighting found that their belongings had been looted while they were at evacuation centers or living with relatives outside the battle area.

"There was nothing left of their things. So, these hand-me-down school uniforms can at least be used. They said the kind of uniform isn't important as long as it is usable. And, also, the school supplies."

Partners for school buildings

Robredo said that the Angat Buhay program has been working with the private sector to help put up classrooms and school buildings in Marawai. 

The PhilAm Foundation, LBC Foundation, Jollibee Foundation and property firm Double Dragon were among the program's partners, she said.

"It is the Department of Education that chooses the beneficiaries as well as the sites," she also said, adding that the sites of the six school buildings her office turned over were chosen because they were far from the city center "because these are where most of the students are."

She said, though, that Marawi needs many more classrooms and school buildings because the families who were displaced from the Most Affected Area, also called "ground zero" have been sending their children to schools outside the city center.