Pupils crowd around the sign for their new library to watch the books arrive.
Time for a much delayed update on things at Pinagala-an Elementary School. Quite a lot has been happening since the last update. In fact we have been so busy I have had little time to update my blog !
Today I was at the school to deliver a lorry load of books we had managed to obtain through a scheme called The Pagtuon Library Project. I found out about the project about a week ago, and a bit of frantic running around and an appeal direct to the Governor enabled us to get Pinagala-an included in the project.
The end result is that the school received 15 boxes of library books this morning in order to enable them to have a proper school library. Previously their ”library” had only a small handful of books to meet the needs of 213 pupils. We now have to arrange to get some bookshelves built for them so they have somewhere to put the books !
Excited children crowd into the library room to study the new books even before there has been time to unpack the boxes !
The books had previously been in school libraries in the USA, and when the US schools change their library stock the surplus books are shipped to the Philippines and given to schools here by a charity called ‘Books for the Barrios’ (a Barrio is a small settlement). The project’s slogan is “pagtuon alang sa masanag nga kangmaon”, which translates as ”study for a brighter future”. The project enables schools which could not afford books themselves to set up a library. Pinagala-an was not due to be included, but with a bit of help from my fellow volunteer Steffi, from Germany, and the help of the Governor, we managed to get it added to the list of schools which were able to benefit.
The teachers and head teacher (centre) are also pleased with the new library. They have had to appoint one of the teachers as a librarian (they didn’t have one before because they didn’t have a proper library). The teacher on the left in the blue t-shirt is now also the new librarian.
So what else has been happening ?
Well for a start, a poster making competition was held at the school in which children had to design a poster about the importance of looking after the water in the mountains and not damaging the watershed. These mountains are the source of drinking water for town of Bayugan, and also provide water to the mountain communities for drinking, irrigating their crops, washing, and all their other daily water needs.
A young girl makes a poster about caring for the water environment of her mountain home, using some of the crayons we donated in June.
Cutting down of the forests not only causes loss of habitats for wildlife and plants, it also leads to less water being absorbed into the ground. The absorption of water into the ground evens out river flows since instead of the water just running over the surface of the ground some of it is held in the soil and later slowly released into rivers after the rain has ended. Removing this process leads to wild fluctuations in river flows, flash floods, soil erosion and – of course – landslips. It also fills the rivers with silt and soil and sweeps away roads.
Residents examine the area where the Pinagala-an to Mount Olive farm to market road used to be before floods and landslips swept it away (Feb 2006)
The plan is to make the kids more aware of the need to take care of the environment of the mountains. Water is Life, after all !
The final thing to report today is that the Water District ran a ‘test run’ for the mass feeding programme for the school pupils while I was home in the UK during August. Anyway, it all went very well, and we now plan to start the child feeding programme in earnest in October.
The children will be given a meal in school on thursdays and fridays to encourage them to attend school. Many of the childrens families (especially the indigenous tribal groups) tend to run out of food halfway through the week. As a result the children skip school to go to work with their parent to try to earn enough money to feed themselves.
A group of girls enjoy a good lunch of rice and meat during a ‘practice run’ in August for the mass feeding program for pupils at the school.
The hope is that by feeding the children in school during the second half of the week the children will attend for the whole week in order to get a good feed. They will also be given vitamin supplements and worming treatments as these are common health problems here! The feeding programme will run from October to March, as these are the months when food is in shortest supply due to heavy rains. Most of the remaining funds raised for the school will be going into the feeding and nutrition programme, since many of the children are malnourished and a hungry child is not going to be able to learn very well at school. Indeed, many Filippino children have their growth stunted by malnutrition in childhood.
An update on funding – another boost was received in the form of another £80 from Newton Mearns Primary School. This brings the total raised so far to £917. I will publish a page of accounts on this blog in the very near future outlining funds received and where it is going. Once again, thanks to all those who have helped.
Well, ‘That’s all for now folks’ as they say. Will update more frequently now I am getting settled back in again after my trip to the UK.
Thanks for all your help again.
