Ayala Foundation provides 60 PCs to 21 to schools in Benguet

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala Foundation Inc. has donated 60 refurbished desktop computers to 21 elementary schools in Benguet province housing the seedling nurseries under the Roots & Shoots program of the Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT) which Globe Telecom is supporting.

The computers will be used to supplement environmental education of the students who are being tapped to build and maintain the nurseries.

“Ayala Foundation is always looking for innovative education projects to support. It is such a pleasure for us to contribute in bringing technology to the children especially those in remote areas.  Hopefully, these computers will serve as an avenue for the students to explore more about their environment so they can see the value in protecting it for their future,” said Luili Heras-De Leon, president of Ayala Foundation.

Fernando Esguerra, OIC, Globe Corporate Social Responsibility said:  “We are very grateful to Ayala Foundation for helping us with this undertaking.  We always welcome support of any kind to further our goal of educating the young on the importance of our forests and have them play an active role in rebuilding and maintaining these forests. Like our slogan for Roots & Shoots say — start with the seed and start with the young and grow forests from there.”

Earlier, Globe provided P800,000 for the establishment of the 21 seedling nurseries hosted by public elementary schools in La Trinidad, Tuba, Kapangan, and Kayabayan.  The amount came from the funds raised during the Globe Cordillera biking challenge held last year.

Roots & Shoots, which is being implemented by CCT in partnership with the Department of Education in Benguet, aims to deliver needed seedlings in order to replenish the bald mountainsides. This is to support the enhancement of community watersheds and prevent landslides in critical areas. It also offers a possible livelihood source for the school and community with the inclusion of commercial crops such as coffee which can be inter-planted underneath the forest.

CCT provides initial materials to establish the nursery in select public schools while community stakeholders such as students, teachers, parents, and members of the barangay lend their time and effort to construct a nursery that can house about 2,000 seedlings.

The seedlings are then nurtured by the students and the teachers until they are ready to be sold and planted for forest-building.

From the recent Globe Cordillera Challenge 4, Globe was able to raise P1.2M from registrations, pledges and sponsorships to fund the establishment of additional 30 seedling nurseries again to be hosted by public elementary schools. 

“Creating the nurseries not only allowed for the expansion of the forest building practices to the youth and community but it also created on site production areas for Forest Building. The schools are now the production centers for the community’s forest building needs situated right where they are needed most,” said JP Alipio, executive director of CCT.