Australia gives new books to Tacloban schools

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines - – The Books for Asia program, with support from the Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program (PACAP), donated 8,700 books to 11 elementary schools in Tacloban City recently. 

The recipient schools are the Sto. Niño SPED Center and the elementary schools of San Fernando, Rizal, Marasbaras, Kapangi-an, San Jose, Anibong, Tigbao-Diit, Basper, Kalipayan and Palanog.

Anna Bantug-Herrera, acting deputy country representative of The Asia Foundation, personally attended the event and awarded the books to the public school principals.

The book donation was also coupled with a story-telling session. Among those who read stories to the children were the mayor’s wife, Tacloban City councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez and award winning poet, Prof. Merlie Alunan.

Bantug-Herrera said the donations manifested the support of the Australian Government and the McGraw Hill companies for the Books for Asia program. She said this underscores Australia’s commitment to give access of Filipino children to quality education. She hopes that supporting activities like these would bring joy and inspire students from disaster-hit schools.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reports a P23.9 billion worth of damage and loss to the education sector alone when typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit Eastern Visayas in 2013. These include damages to basic education school infrastructure, learning materials, and sanitation facilities. Yolanda affected the lives of some 1.3 million students who lost their schools and homes.

This book donation drive is part of the initiative of the Australian Government’s long-running small grants program, PACAP, managed by The Asia Foundation. PACAP helps beneficiary communities meet their needs through small grants assistance awarded to qualified civil society organizations (CSO) and poor communities. 

Currently, Australia delivers support towards the recovery of Yolanda-affected communities through PACAP-Yolanda, which aims to build back livelihood assets, expand opportunities for employment, and restore economic production. Since 1986, PACAP has awarded more than 2,200 grants to 1,320 CSOs benefitting 1,460,000 poor people nationwide.