Helping build a classroom is just a text away

MANILA, Philippines - Classroom shortage is a problem faced by thousands of public elementary and high schools nationwide. Currently, the classroom shortage in the country stands at over 152,000 on a single shift to meet the 1:45 ideal classroom-to-students ratio.

While the government has tried to address this problem, the resources needed to accomplish the daunting task is simply too much. Fortunately, there are organizations and groups that have committed to help build classrooms.

One of these is the 57-75 Movement led by the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) which have organized the Bayanihang Pampaaralan initiative which aims to raise P6 billion to build 10,000 classrooms in two years.

One component of the Bayanihang Pampaaralan is a public fundraising campaign called TEN Moves! (The Entire Nation Moves). The strategy of TEN Moves is to look for two million Filipinos who are willing to donate P10 per day for 10 months. As the donations are on a piecemeal basis, the organizers of TEN Moves decided to utilize GCash as one of the donation channels. GCash is the pioneering mobile wallet service of Globe Telecom.

“The fundraising campaign has two objectives – to raise the needed resources for classrooms and to create a constituency for education among ordinary Filipinos. To get more people involved and engaged, we needed a means by which people could donate in a ‘sachet’ manner, hence we thought of using GCash for donations as the system is highly accessible, convenient and reliable,” said Mario Deriquito, senior director of Ayala Foundation and chair of the LCF Committee on Education. Ayala Foundation manages the TEN Moves campaign in behalf of the 57-75 Movement.

“We are proud to be a part of this noble endeavor. With over 6,000 sending and receiving points nationwide, donating to Bayanihang Pampaaralan via GCash is now more convenient and accessible to our subscribers,” said Paolo Baltao, president of G-XChange, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom and operator of Gcash.

To donate, Globe or TM subscribers simply type DONATE <space> AMOUNT <space> MPIN <space> ten (ex. DONATE 100 1234 ten) and send to 2882. Subscribers must have enough amount of GCASH in their wallets for the transaction to go through.