New school buildings rise in Polambato Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — The partnership between SM Prime, Deutsche Bank AG Manila and SM Foundation has made possible the construction of two school buildings in Polambato, Bogo, Cebu on a one-hectare property donated by the heirs of Wenceslao and Margarita Fernan.  

Aside from the school building donations, employees of Deutsche Bank led by the bank’s COO Rhoneil Fajardo and Annie Yeo, head of CSR in Asia, painted  murals  in each classroom  depicting  the theme, “Resilience.” They also distributed  health kits  to students  of the Polambato Elementary School.  

 When the old site was damaged by earthquake and Typhoon Yolanda, roofs were blown away with three classrooms totally damaged. The school had to be repaired to accommodate classes.

The Fernan family offered a new site to the school and now there will be 12 classrooms for the Polambato Elementary School to house 655 pupils.

The site is also a stone’s throw away from the SM Cares Village which was inaugurated a few days ago.

The turnover of the school building was graced by local town officials led by Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr.  together with city councilors and barangay officials, the donors represented by Michael Fernan and Dr. Emiliana Borromeo; DepEd’s Nimfa Bongco, Deutsche Bank’s COO Rhoneil Fajardo, Edgar Jose Ampil, VP for finance-legal control, Annie Yeo, director and head CSR Asia, SMFI’s Debbie Sy and Carmen Linda Atayde.

Half of the donated property is earmarked for another school, hopefully a Polambato High School.

The school buildings come complete with student desks, blackboards, teacher’s tables and chairs, electric fans and a toilet per classroom.

While construction was undertaken by SM Prime, painting of the murals depicting moral values were painstakingly done by volunteers from India, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.  

Volunteers from the bank head office in Manila numbering 20 organized the CSR program.  

All volunteers paid for their transportation, accommodation and food for their six-day stay in Bogo. 

Their stories of volunteerism are as varied as those of the typhoon victims, but both volunteers and the victims certainly have made a difference — one gives support from the warmth of their hearts to those in need, while the other receives this support with much gratitude from their hearts.