It’s back to school — for kids and moms, too

MANILA, Philippines - You know it’s the end of summer when kids are getting restless at home and excited to go to National Book Store to buy their school supplies.

When kids go to school, moms’ days get doubly busy as well. For them, this yearly exercise is almost like preparing for Christmas — the earlier you do it, the less stress you feel when you send your children off on their first day of school, and you don’t have to spend the last weekend of their summer vacation trying to complete the checklist of things they need.

National Book Store director for purchasing Xandra Ramos-Padilla is herself a mom to a boy and a girl, ages five and three, and she is well aware of this rush and countdown to the first day of school.

She shares several tips to help moms have a stress-free school opening, getting organized and relaxed at home — with organizing tools and books to read and put their feet up to —  and even a baon guide that’s easy to prepare. She’s also made a list for fun and supplementary books to get kids interested in their lessons at school.

Xandra says that customers of National Book Store also have the opportunity to help schoolchildren in far-flung areas  and depressed urban centers who have no access to school supplies either because of the lack of availability or budget.

National Book Store Foundation since 2009 has been holding its advocacy program Project Aral every summer in preparation of the coming school year in June. This year’s back-to-school promo is themed, “It’s not just what you buy, it’s also what you use it for.” 

And for such good you can use a mere P25 in any of the 150 NBS branches nationwide.

Xandra Padilla says, “For only P25, you can donate a school kit to a kid that needs it. Each kit contains a composition or writing notebooks, one pencil, a sharpener or an eraser. Customers can buy a pack for grade school children, write their name on the pack and drop them in drop boxes in our stores.”

Xandra says that the project last year received “an overwhelming response from customers who bought a total of 300,000 bundles to be distributed to schoolchildren.”

NBS Foundation, she says, has beneficiaries that range from barrios and towns that are underserviced  — “the kind of places where there are no vehicles, so supplies are transported on carabaos or horses” — and dense, urban centers where the public schools are overwhelmed by the number of students who cannot afford to buy school supplies.

Xandra says Project Aral has been a success since 2009 in getting people to help in the education of schoolchildren. 

“We research the beneficiaries by targeting low-income regions in the Philippines. There have been three significant schools we have given supplies to. One is Babuyan Islands where we were able to bring supplies to 2,000 kids in 2009. Second is Igcaputol School in Antique province, where we created a spark. At the time, we were there to give books, and the Aeta chieftain asked us to donate sharpeners for 100 kids. Unfortunately, we had nothing to give because what we brought were books. The following year, we went back and gave kids not just one sharpener each but 100 packs with four notebooks, two pencils, an eraser and a sharpener each. Another school significant to us is in Liangabon Surigao, where the kids used banana leaves as notebooks and charcoal as pencil. Last year, the foundation, together with a local partner, gave them Project Aral kits.”

 Xandra adds that the Surigao school was actually featured in a documentary last year. “We sought out the people who were involved and asked how we could get in touch with the school. Other beneficiaries were selected by our branches, which know best who and how to help  in their respective areas.”

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Project Aral is ongoing until June 30, so you can still make a difference in a child’s school year.

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