A 'childish' Sister Act

Our bachelor-President has no spouse (yet) and though he said hope springs eternal that he will walk down the aisle before his term is over, the office of the First Lady is definitely unoccupied as of now.

It is a powerful office, and could be used as a pulpit for important advocacies. After all, named by Forbes magazine as the most powerful woman in the world is a First Lady — US First Lady Michelle Obama.

The late former President Aquino had no First Gentleman, and so her socio-civic arm was a group called the Bigay Puso ladies, composed of wives of her Cabinet members and heads of the various commands of the AFP. The Bigay Puso did relief mission activities especially in storm-ravaged areas.

Helping out President Noynoy Aquino in areas where a First Lady would normally lend her office to are his sisters Ballsy, Pinky, Viel and Kris.

I think that after promising to help the people during the campaign, the sisters are keeping their end of the bargain. Not just because it was a campaign promise, but because they want to reciprocate the love shown their parents, Ninoy and Cory, and the trust shown their brother as bearer of the torch.

Pinky Abellada is quietly aiming for 100 classrooms cum libraries for preschoolers before P-Noy’s first year in office on June 30, 2011. Each classroom cum library is called a “Silid Pangarap.”

Her group is called AGAPP, short for “Aklat, Gabay, Aruga tungo sa Pag-angat at Pag-asa.”

 “Our goal is to provide the poor Filipino child with the ammunition to help him in his fight to escape poverty,” says Pinky. I chanced upon Pinky’s project during the launch of her sister Kris as the new Belo endorser. Kris thanked Vicki for being one of the donors to Pinky’s project.

 The strategy of AGAPP is three-pronged: First, by building classrooms cum libraries (aklat), teacher training (gabay) and eventually, feeding and livelihood and parenting training (aruga).

 Why did Pinky, who had planned to teach in a university after she got her MA in Economics in 2009 (“But life had other things in store for me.”), focus on preschools?

“Most brain development happens between zero to eight years; we provide the facility conducive to learning (the preschool) and also materials to develop comprehension and love for learning (the library),” Pinky points out.

 According to Pinky, in most countries, there is 100 percent access to some form of early education by five-year-olds. On the other hand, the latest statistics from the Department of Education show that access to early education in the Philippines stands at a low 40 percent. Highest dropout rate happens between Grades 1 to 3 (versus Grades 5 to 6 10 years ago). Pinky also found out that if a child has good grades, the tendency is that parents will do everything to keep him/her in school!

 “Reading about the sorry state of some of our public schools is nothing compared to actually seeing it. It will surely break your heart,” laments Pinky.

What drew Pinky to this advocacy?

“Noy’s classmate, architect Gerry Esquivel has been building libraries to give to a few communities (all out of his pocket). After May 10, he wanted to make this a bigger project and asked if I could listen to him. During this period, so many wanted to continue with volunteerism and find ways of helping Noy succeed in moving our country forward.  I didn’t want his efforts to go to waste so I said yes and that I would bring along my classmate, Feny Bautista, a TOYM awardee for Education. She has devoted her entire life to Basic Education, so she could share some of her experiences so that the impact of Gerry’s library project is maximized.”

“In that afternoon meeting sometime in July, the group, half of which was composed of the President’s classmates and half mine (Poveda HS ’75), agreed that we would build preschools with library. Feny convinced us that there is a great need for addressing preschool kids — it is the equivalent of Prep for our kids and the only chance the kids have before going to public school.”

According to Pinky, Feny discussed the Ypsilanti Study done in Michigan some 40 years ago where they tracked lives of the group that had preschool and the other that didn’t. There was definitely less juvenile delinquency for those who went to preschool and less failure/repetition in school. 

“So for government, there is savings to be realized because you lower repetition rates. The library will reinforce the idea of equipping the child with more ammunition to help him escape poverty. What happens now is ‘decoding’ or learning how to read — think about being taught how to read, say, Cyrillic — yes you can read the word but do you understand it?  I asked Feny to explain because that’s how I learned anyway and she said — we are fortunate because we have family, TV, radio, extended family and other means by which we can strengthen comprehension.  Where there is extreme poverty, the kids sometimes go home with no one to talk to and no further stimulation,” explains Pinky.

“Having story telling in the library will develop comprehension skills and also develop love for reading. Our Silid Pangarap will be used as preschool and also when preschool is done, it will be open to children up to Grade 3 for story telling,” adds Pinky, who has two children, now young adults themselves.

Feny has also committed to do teacher training. She conducted her first in Barangay Holy Spirit for preschool and Grade 1 teachers. The teachers were so appreciative that when the first Silid Pangarap was blessed, they saw artwork done by the teachers who attended Feny’s training program.

The Pilot School in Barangay Holy Spirit was donated by Ateneo Batch ‘81 (the President’s batch). Aside from Vicki Belo, AGAPP also received support from the San Miguel Corp., MATIMCO, JG Summit, URATEX, National Book Store, Gil Yuson, Pinky’s Poveda Batch ‘75 and other donors who wish to remain anonymous. 

Education Secretary Br. Armin Luistro has been very supportive of the project and graced the groundbreaking of the Barangay Holy Spirit school last Sept. 18. 

“He hopes we can build thousands of these,” shares Pinky, adding,  “We hope so, too!”

Brain development, according to the experts, is most crucial in the first eight years of a child’s life. Who was it who said, “Give me the first eight years of a child’s life, and you give me his entire life.”

By making a difference in a preschooler’s life, you are actually shaping the destiny of a nation.

(For more information about AGAPP, e-mail them at [email protected].)

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])