Smart initiates community mentoring via Read-to-be-Smart

MANILA, Philippines - It’s not just school kids who have been showing up at the Marcela Marcelo Elementary School in Malibay, Pasay City, for the Read-to-be-Smart program of Smart Communications, Inc.

Their parents, too, have been at the school to volunteer in the preparation of the students’ meals, the cleaning of the school premises and the feeding of the children.

The involvement of the parents is part of Smart’s community mentoring approach, which is manifested in Read-to-be-Smart, a summer reading program conducted by employee-volunteers.

“Read-to-be-Smart is a vehicle for a community to get together for a common goal — which is to help improve the reading skills of public school children,” says Ramon R. Isberto, head of Smart’s public affairs group. “We’ve started with the parents, who willingly contribute time and effort since their kids are enrolled in and benefit from the program. We’ve also been able to attract teachers who volunteer to teach the children for free during the summer.”

Isberto says that with community mentoring, Smart eventually envisions communities gaining self-sufficiency with members pooling resources to achieve a common goal, starting with improved education for their public school children via projects such as Read-to-be-Smart.

Last summer, Smart employee-volunteers and partner organizations also conducted Read-to-be-Smart at the Margarita Roxas de Ayala Elementary School in Sta. Ana, Manila; Buagsong Elementary School in Cordova, Cebu; Misamis Annex Elementary School in Ozamis City; Valencia City Central School in Valencia City and Culianan Learning Center e-Impact in Zamboanga City.

Read-to-be-Smart was also conducted at the People’s Park, Magallanes Elementary School and Sta. Ana Elementary School in Davao City; Barangay Ligaya Day Care Center, GK Promise Land and Upper Tambler Elementary School in General Santos City; and a total of 28 schools in the towns of Malungon, Glan, Malapatan, Maasim and Kiamba in Sarangani Province.

Smart has succeeded in getting the parents of the Read-to-be-Smart beneficiaries involved in the meal preparation, cleaning of the school premises and actual feeding. In Cebu, Ozamis, Valencia and Zamboanga, Smart employee-volunteers also had help from teachers, parents and students in conducting the reading program.

In Cagayan de Oro City, Smart has gained the support of the Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan to conduct Read-to-be-Smart during the school year with the help of their National Service Training Program students.

The program has also expanded to include storytelling sessions among selected school children of the Bolongtohan Elementary School in Dulag, Leyte, and children the PLDT-Smart Gawad Kalinga Villages in Barangay Budlaan, Talamban, Cebu City, and Barangay Sooc, Arevalo, Iloilo City.

Richard Epres, president of Marcela Marcelo Elementary School’s Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), says that parents want to be active participants in school activities, especially those that benefit their children. “We all know there are no salaries involved in doing PTA work. But we want to be here to fully support the children’s endeavors.”

At the Marcela Marcelo Elementary School, the parents take up a classroom themselves, putting together a makeshift kitchen to cook the children’s breakfast and lunch. They do all the marketing and menu planning, and arrive at the school as early as 5 a.m. to prepare the meals. The others arrive a little later to clean the classrooms.

“Aside from knowing and making sure that our children learn something while attending the program, our involvement allows us parents to stand together in supporting our children,” says Virginia Centeno.

Rolando Veroncruz, who works as a janitor at the school, has no qualms about being the only male in the cooking group. “My wife stays home and I come here to volunteer for the two of us. I want to show my child my support,” he says.

Being involved in the project also allows the parents to learn more about their children. Zenaida Estoquia says, “We are happy when we see how our children discover what they’re good at, how their best skills are tapped.”

The parent-volunteers are likewise grateful for the opportunity to form friendships with one another. “We now see how our community can be without jealousy and crab mentality, only helping each other towards our common goals,” Zenaida Hornales happily points out.

Smart kicked off its employee-volunteerism program in education with the PasaBook nationwide campaign in 2003, where selected schools from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were given books donated by Smart employees. In April 2004, Read-to-be-Smart was implemented in Makati City under the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School program. RTBS was extended to Pasay City and Cebu City in 2005, and to Cagayan De Oro City and Davao City in 2006.

This year, Smart introduced enhancements to the program, with the help of Silid Aralan, Inc. (SAI), a non-government organization that has successfully implemented educational programs in Montalban, Rizal.  Using SAI’s unique Learning Technology, volunteers came up with specific Learning Plans tailored to their community, which aim to improve not just a child’s reading ability but his overall learning capacity as well.

With more people extending valuable support for the sake of the students, only more good can come out of the Read-to-be-Smart program.