Japanese bizman restores a Yolanda-ravaged school

TOLOSA, LEYTE , Philippines   â€” Japanese businessman Raiko Fujioka adopted San Roque Elementary School in this town in Leyte, as beneficiary for his restoration project with the aim of continuing the education of children after the Yolanda devastation.

Fujioka fulfilled his work to restore the damaged public school, but then his problem now is to provide the pupils with textbooks, which were lost to the typhoon and floods. As such, he is appealing to donors who can help him in giving textbooks to the schoolchildren.

The Japanese philanthropist, who owns the five-year-old QQ English school at IT Park in Cebu City that offers online or offline ESL courses for foreign students, traveled to the devastated towns in Leyte to share his blessings to the victims or survivors.

Right after Yolanda, Fujioka gathered his staff to plan what could be the immediate help he could bring to the devastated areas. What came first to his mind was that the victims needed food, water and medicines, among others emergency items. An immediate decision was formed.

Days after the typhoon, his team without public fanfare went to Tanauan town in Leyte where he conducted a month-long feeding activity for the children, and distributed Christmas gifts, such as raincoats and bags, to them, including sleeping and hygiene  kits to the other survivors.

Fujioka however realized later that giving food and other goods to victims just satiated temporarily the palate and the stomachs, so he decided to do a more lasting and meaningful act: Rehabilitate the destroyed elementary school buildings.

Fujioka, with his personal staff  Dory Jimenez, went to the similarly ravaged neighboring  towns  purposely to look for schools that he could restore or rehabilitate using his personal money.

Along the Maharlika Highway in Tolosa town, about 20 kilometers from Tacloban City, they found San Roque Elementary School, a destroyed school building with nothing of the structure left standing, surrounded by debris and pools of water from the sea at the height of the storm surge.

Without walls, the school could only be recognized as such with the fallen marker on the ground. The people told Fujioka and Jimenez that, before Yolanda, the compound had nine structures with at least 600 pupils enrolled.

Fujioka said he wanted a school that had kindergarten pupils, but the residents there told him the San Roque Elementary School also had kindergarten classes in addition to grade schools, so he decided that this was the school he was looking for.

Fujioka decided that he will spend millions of pesos of  his own money to restore fully the school’s structures and install water and drainage systems as well as electricity connections. He later met with the school principal and the teachers to discuss his plans with them. He also met with barangay officials for permission  to implement his plans.

Fujioka hired engineers, architects and laborers to start the rebuilding of the school. He even brought in some workers from other towns to help. Most of  the construction materials were bought and delivered to Tolosa from Cebu City.

After clearing the school area, Fujioka’s team officially started restoration works last Feb. 2. He may have restored the whole building now but he said the most important thing in this undertaking will be to educate the school children, thus he needed textbooks.

Fujioka in his statement, said: “My role will come in. I will restore the whole school building for the sake of continuing the education of the children. Educating the next generation and education is very important for the development of a country,” he said.

“We are calling for anybody to please help us provide the school children with textbooks. We need your help. I am calling the whole world to please help the children who have no more books. It is useless even if we have teachers, newly restored school buildings and facilities, when the children have nothing to read and study. They are the next generation that will lead the country. My blood is not Filipino but my heart and spirit belongs to the Philippines,” he said.

Grade 4 teacher, Imee Rose Telin, told The Freeman she was overwhelmed by and thankful to Fujioka and his advocacy.  (FREEMAN)