Berseba Elementary School Enters the Computer Age

When we arrived at Berseba Elementary School the children were playing with the badminton sets we gave them on an earlier visit

Good news from Berseba Elementary School in the mountains of Bayugan in Mindanao.

On a recent visit to the school the head teacher had appealed to us to help them get a computer, as they had no IT equipment at all for the children despite having over 200 children enrolled there. Well, we were recently able to return to Berseba Elementary School to deliver the computer which we had bought with donations from people back in Britain.

 

Whose idea was it to tell the shop we would take the computer table flatpacked ?  Bill, the teachers and I puzzle over the assembly instructions. 

There was tremendous excitement at the school when we arrived as they were not expecting us.  Communications in the mountain areas are very poor and we had been unable to get word to them that we were coming as there are no landlines and very few mobile phones in the area. When they realised we had brought them a computer they were just astounded and very excited.  

We had received the money for the base unit, monitor, surge protector and computer desk from a kind friend of my mother’s in Newton Mearns near Glasgow. When we told the teachers that all those items were the gift of just one man back in Scotland they were amazed. 

“Just one man ?” they asked, surprised.  “Not a Foundation ?” ”Is he a very rich man ?”

“No” I said, ”Just a very kind man” 

  

Children begin crowd into the room to watch Bill and the teachers assembling the computer table.

We had bought a high quality reconditioned computer which was of a very good specification, with Windows NT, Powerpoint, Excel, a CD drive,  and a Pentium 4 processor, 17 inch monitor - basically it has the works.  It will do everything the school could require and probably a lot more besides. 

Eventually after a lot of humming and hawing, checking of instructions, and sending for tools the computer table was assembled and ready for its precious load.  Two teachers start to put the computer together.

In addition to the computer itself, we were able to buy a printer using donations from my cousin John, Mearns Kirk, and a lady in Kilcreggan.   That was a more complicated procedure than you might think.  We could not buy them the same kind of computer as I have for myself since the ink cartridges for my printer cost about £10 each. The school would never be able to afford to buy an ink cartridges at that kind of cost.  We therefore had to buy a different type of  printer which - although it is much more expensive to buy – uses a typewriter ribbon type cartridge similar to those used on electric typewriter.  The repalcement cartridge for this type of printer is only £1 (a tenth of the price).  Even better – you can just buy the ribbon iteslf and replace it within the old cartridge case for only 35 pence per ribbon.  Much more affordable, and within the reach of the schools limited financial resources to replace the ribbon.  

Now let me see…..where does this bit go ? 

Before long the village officals, parents and just about the entire village were tying to see this great event take place.

By the time we were ready to finally switch on the computer for the first time you could hardly move in the room, as it was packed with the entire community as well as loads of the children.  It was obvioulsy seen as a major event for the village and nobody wanted to miss seeing it happen.

Success ! All connected up, working perfectly and ready to roll !

I am sure the computer will be very well used and will be a great help to the teachers in educating the children.  In the modern age learning to use computers is a great advantage for children.  Also, in the Philippines many families have relatives or family members working overseas to try and help support the family, and if they can use computers it is much easier for families to keep in touch with each other.   

Mission accomplished!

 Meanwhile, a couple of the parents had also found some books, a pop-up play tent, and some crayons which were also brought out from Scotland on Bill’s most recent trip.  They seemed very facinated and pleased with these as well, and promptly took them for the teachers of the pre-school group to use. 

 

Bill and a couple of Mums check out the playtent, books and crayons for the pre-school group.

All in all, another happy and satisfying day. 

A big thank-you to all those back home who made it possible with their donations. 

A Not-So-White Christmas…..Sunshine and Santas

Travelling into Agusan marsh to deliver Christmas goodies !

Christmas time has arrived !

Time to spread a little Christmas cheer as we go along our way!

So, in that spirit this week began with a group of my VSO colleagues, the Save Mindanao Volunteers and me travelling into the Agusan marsh to deliver Christmas gifts to the people there.  

 

We are greeted by the children all singing welcome songs to us at the new Literacy Centre built by the Save Mindanao Volunteers. 

Our destination was a Sitio (small settlement) called Kilobeaden where the Save Mindanao Volunteers (SMV) have been doing a lot f work to help the community. 

Kilobeaden.  The house in the foreground is typical of the houses there, each of which can be home to ten or more people. 

Amongst the things that SMV have been doing is constructing a Literacy Centre for the teaching of children and adults alike.  

We arrived late afternoon, since it is a long journey to get there, first by car, then by big boat, then by little canoe !  As a result by the time we laid out our sleeping mats etc. it was dark.  Nevertheless, we were given a tour of the village and told who lived in each house (and how many !). 

 

A Kilobeaden household at dusk. 

There were seventeen houses in all.  Amongst the occupants was a 42 year old woman who had a 5-day old baby – her tenth child.  She wasn’t the only one with a big family either. 

We planned to stay overnight, so in some ways it would have made sense to distribute the gifts in the morning once we had daylight again, but the intended recipients were too excited to wait that long.  Consequently we battered on by the light of a single gas-lamp and the odd improvised kerosene lamp made from an old bottle and a rag (there is no electricity here !).

 

Families wait barefoot in the mud for the distribution of gifts to begin.

So in spite of the darkness and some very heavy rain showers I donned my Santa Hat and we got on with it !

It was all very organised as the Save Mindanao Volunteers produced a list of all the households, along with details of how many children each family had and any other special circumstances (such as “this lady is a widow with six children”).  We were therefore able to adjust the size of the pack each family got to the number in the household etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A happy lady receives a bag of children’s clothes and toys

The gifts included a load of soft toys donated by folk in Newton Mearns, and transported out from Glasgow on Bill’s last trip out here.  As the bags were carried away into the darkness we all retired to bed – sleeping on the floor of the Literacy Centre.  The following morning we woke to find the various new toys being played with and the new clothes being worn aleady by some of the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amongst the toys were little “tooting party horns”, so that following morning we woke to the sound not of birdsong but of children running around going “toot toot”.  I could just hear my sister’s voice from back in Scotland saying “that’s the kind of thing Aunties give, not parents !” 

Ah well. 

I have done my bit for the peace and tranquility of the marsh !

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left : Nice new t-shirt, nice new kite… but something missing.

Above : The boy in the centre is wearing his new t-shirt and shorts.

The final items distributed the following morning were some chinese kites.  I had been unsure if these would work as there is limited space to run about to get the kite launched, but they seemed to manage and had a really good time with them. As did the adults !

 

Even during Christmas celebrations normal life goes on, and a little person still needs to wash behind their ears ! I hope they don’t wring her out like the laundry !

The following day at dawn we went for a trip round a nearby lake, and got some fresh fish straight from the fisherman’s net, which was then cooked for our breakast.  Delicious !

It was then time to be on our way, so we took to the canoes once again, and headed out of the marsh. 

However, a Santa’s work is never done, so more tasks lay ahead.  On returning to San Franz (where I live) I had to immediately head out to the shops to finish shopping for the Pinagalaan School Party the following day.

Pinagala-an Elementary School Christmas Party ! 

Pinagala-an School’s Christmas programme started at 10 am with all of the classes taking it in turns to give a little performance ( a song, dance, or both !).  I arrived just in time for the start of this, and was treated like a guest of honour !  I also had to join in the dancing to Christmas songs, much to the amusement of the kids who were in fits of laughter at this funny white woman doing all the actions to the songs !

At lunchtime we had a mass feeding again, with a few extras like cakes and sweeties since it was the Christmas party ! I then started distibuting gifts to the schoolchildren with the help of the teachers.

 

Toy cars are handed out to the Grade 1 and Grade 2 boys. 

The toys handed out included soft toys collected by the people of Newton Mearns. In all, over 60 soft toys from Glasgow were distibuted at the school, and that was not counting the ones distributed in the marsh the day before.  There were also a load of balloons which came out from Scotland, too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two young girs display their new soft toys.  In the background of the left hand picture, bags of donated clothing from Newton Mearns await distribution.

I had also bought a load more toys out here including lots of toy cars, word games, puzzles, spiderman toys, power rangers, yoyos, water pistols and ….you guessed it… .. more tooting horns and kites ! 

Happy faces as the children of Pinagala-an Elementary School receive their gifts !

Once again the process was very orderly thanks to the help of the teachers who called the pupils up one class at a time. 

Having handed out a Christmas present to every child in the school, we then turned our attention to handing out the donated clothes which had been brought from Scotland.  There weren’t quite enough to kit out all 209 pupils in the school, so the teachers decided the indigenous students (those from the Manobo tribe) should have priority as these families tend to be the poorest and most disadvantaged.  

 

A Manobo boy gets fitted out with a new ‘St Cadoc’s’ polo shirt and a pair of shorts by the teachers.

Once again the teachers set to, checking all the clothes against the pupils to make sure they fitted okay.  They really worked hard.  However I had bought a great big gooey chocolate cake for the teachers to share as a thanks for all their hard work over the previous year !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left : A Manobo boy gets fitted with a Mearns Primary School polo shirt.  Right : A boy in desparate need of a new t-shirt (wearing a t-shirt full of holes) clutches his new Mearns Primary polo shirt.

Having completed our task it was time to return to the Barangay (village) Hall for the  afternoon part of the programme. 

However, I may have contributed to things degenerating into chaos, as the floor of the hall was by this time covered with kids playing with their new toy cars and there were balloons bouncing about everywhere !

 

Playing with the new toy cars !

Nonetheless, the programme eventually got under way again with community singing and dancing.  I was dragged up to sit on the stage, but had a constant stream of children bringing me the baloons out their gift packs for me to blow up for them. 

All in alll, a good time as had by all, and all the goodies and presents really seemed to make the day for the children. Indeed one or two of them couldn’t wait to put on their new clothes and appeared at the afternoon session sporting new t-shirts !

A Manobo boy sports his new St Cadoc’s polo shirt 

A final thought at Christmas time ……

It occurred to me that the money I spent on cakes sweets and toys for the whole school was similar to what could be easily spent on one festive meal back in the UK over this Christmas period. 

And for that you can make a whole school happy !

No contest really, is it ?

So thanks again to all those who donated money, toys and clothes.  You all helped make it a very special day for the children.

May your own Christmas be as happy as you made the children and their families that day.  

Science Lab Revamp at Pinagala-an

Birthday presents for Pinagala-an ! The head teacher Ferdinand Buque and volunteer teacher  Mr Tambili with some maps, watercolour paints, and educational posters we donated to the school.

This year on my birthday (6th December) Bill and I went to Pinagala-an to deliver some science equipment and other goodies to the children.  Bill and I had spent the previous weekend in Davao, which is about six hours away down in the south of Mindanao, in order to source and buy the more specialist items the school teachers had requested. 

One of the tougher things to find was a microscope.  The school’s existing microscope had been unusable for at least two years, a source of great concern to the head teacher as he is also the science teacher for the school.

An excited head teacher assembles the new school microscope. 

We are really keen to promote the teaching of science as you will probably have seen on the TV the devastating effects that deforestation are having in the Philippines, with whole villages being swept away by landslides and all the ocupants of those villages being killed.  Even in the area where I work there are regular landslips.  So quite apart from the environmental reasons, there is an urgent need to raise children’s awareness of the importance of managing thier environment in a more sustainable (and safer) way to prevent loss of life as well as destruction of the environment. 

Anyway, after a lot of hunting we eventually sourced a suitable microscope from a medical supplies shop within the Davao Doctor’s Hospital.  To this we added a pack of glass microscope slides, a box of coverplates and half a dozen magnets (another request from the teachers !) – including bar magnets and horseshoe magnets.  Not sure why magnets are available in a medical supplies shop, but they were ! Later on we even found educational posters about microscopes and about magnetism, to create a complete set !  The head teacher Mr Burqe was really impressed by that, and kept saying how complete it all was !

     

Bill and Head teacher Mr Buque with the microscope, magnets and posters. 

These were not the only educational posters we bought – there were a whole heap of them, as well as which every classroom got a world map and a map of the Philippines. 

Finally, we added loads of trays of watercolour paints since this is something the school has trouble affording to buy for themselves, and there is no way the individual children could provide their own – they just couldn’t afford to do so.   So or the time being art classes can take on a new lease of life !

We handed over the stuff and were about to leave for Butuan (as Bill had to fly home the next day) when all  the children appeared in front of me and started singing me really lovely birthday tunes. 

 

The children singing birthday songs to me !

It was not just a simple ”Happy Birthday to You” but several lovely and quite complicated birthday songs which were obviously well rehearsed, and all about ‘ your can hear all your sons and daughters are singing to you’ and ‘ today must be so much happier than yesterday since its your birthday‘  and ‘we are so happy god has given you one more year’.    Lovely, and very touching !

 

I am suddenly innundated by flowers – which are locally grown by the parents of the children for sale in local markets.

During the singing I noticed some of the children holding flowers, and was a bit suspicious about this, and sure enough at the end of the singing I was swamped in flowers.  Cut flowers are one of the major things grown by local farmers (but in a very subsistence-farming type way), so although the local people are so poor they have very little which they can give, they gave me the one thing they had – flowers.  And they gave them in abundance – a veritable tidal wave of flowers ! Very generous and moving. 

I certainly went home with a little tear of emotion in my eye after all their efforts to mark my birthday (and so did Bill – he was about to tease me when he realised he also had a tear in his eye !). 

A truly memorable birthday indeed. 

Santa Arrives Early at Pinagalaan School

 

School supplies being prepared for distribution today 

Christmas arrived early at Pinagala-an Elementary School today when a fresh batch of school supplies was distributed to all the pupils at the school.  We had been getting close to using up all the money we have so far raised when we got a very generous donation of 250 pounds from a kind hearted individual in Newton Mearns.  This meant we have been able to do another distribution of school supplies to all the teachers and the pupils. Thanks a lot “Mr A” – the pupils really appreciate your gift.

Last week we therefore went up to the school and asked the teachers to give us a list of which school supplies they needed most.  This worked well as we were able to make sure everything they got was what they really needed.  We even got details like what brand of chalk etc. was their favourite – not something I would have thought of if they hadn’t told us (it is a brand called ‘Venus’ in case you want to know !).   

We also took them some pop-up books Bill brought out from Scotland with him, which my sister Karen had bought at a school sale in Newton Mearns.  They were all about grammar, science and maths but in a pop-up book form.  All I can say is that if the pupils get as much fun out of them as the teachers did they will be a huge success as an addition to the new school library !  

 Bill and I hand out the schools packs to the pupils.

Bill and I have spent the past 4 or 5 days buying in the supplies to make up the packs for the children, and putting the packs together in the evening.  Packs included jotters, pencils and pencil sharpeners in a plastic or cardboard wallet.   

 The Grade 1 class with their packs, and a ‘thank-you’ poster they had made for us.  Each of the classes has made us a ‘thank-you’ poster, which was very touching and greatly appreciated. 

All in all, the cost of the school supplies was around 100 pounds, so we still have some money left for other things, like the mass feeding  and child health programme. 

  Today’s meal for the children – a fish, rice and noodles and juice.

 

The feeding programme is continuing, with the children being fed in school twice a week to encourage them to attend classes instead of trying to earn money to feed themselves. 

Last Friday all the children were also all wormed, and I am assured that the worming has been effective with worms being ‘expelled’ as planned (strangely enough, I don’t have a photo of that!) so that in itself should improve the nutritional status of the children! It must feel better not to have a gut full of worms stealing your food !! 

 Children queue up to file through the shelter where Bill is handing out bags of food during the mass feeding today. 

We have been providing the funding for the ingredients for the feeding programme from your donations, but the labour to prepare and cook it all is provided free by the staff of the water district who go to work early (at about 4am!) to make all the food for the children.  They are real heroes for taking on all that work.  

 

Every teacher also recieved a pack of supplies including a ream of plain paper, graph paper, crayons, glue, scissors, neon colored paper and card for making displays, manila paper, marker pens, pencils,  chalk (Venus brand!), and a blackboard eraser.  The headteacher also got a globe, a compass (or science lessons) and we have promised him a microscope and magnets for the science class too ! 

Finally, with our new donation we have also been buying some additional clothes for distribution at Christmas.  These will be handed out the week before Christmas in Pinagalaan and in the Agusan Marsh, along with the clothes and toys donated in Scotland which Bill brought out when he arrived this time. We bought 50 pairs of new shorts for 20 pisos each, 20 t-shirts for 25 pisos each and 20 pairs of pants at 15 pisos each.  Not bad, since there are about 90 pisos to the pound, so we got all those clothes for about 20 pounds !  

All in all, the kids and teachers at the school are very grateful for the help and donations they have received.  Thanks to all of you who have made it possible. 

Pinagala-an Gets a School Library

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.

A Letter from the Teachers and Pupils of Pinagalaan

 

Some of the IP children we are helping with their school fees and study materials (IPs = Indigenous Peoples).  In the Pinagalaan area they are from the Manobo Tribe.

The children and teachers at Pinagalaan Elementary School say a big thank-you to all those who have been helping them !!  On my return home for a holiday this week I will be bringing with me thank-you letters to Newton Mearns Primary School, Rosneath and Craigrownie Churches, and to Mearns Parish Kirk.

On recent fund-raising, a particularly big thank-you to the children of Newton Mearns Primary School, who raised just over £366.00 for Pinagalaan School during a recent “dress-as-you-please” day. Well done to all the children and staff, and to my niece Holly-Beth for suggesting the idea and, with the help of her friends, doing a great deal to publicise and promote it.  In addition, people linked to Rosneath St Modans and Craingrownie Churches have contributed a generous £300.  Mearns Parish Kirk contributed £170 plus loads and loads of school supplies and clothes which were also worth a great deal of money (and they also gave money and clothes for children at a little coastal village near Barobo). I will be bringing home receipts for all the money spent so far, which everyone is welcome to look at to see how the money is being spent.  I will also summarise the accounts on this blog in the near future so everything is very transparent and accountable.  I know you trust me but I its your money so I want you to know where every penny (or piso!) goes !

Anyway, the following thank you letters are for all of you kind-hearted children and adults, and for everyone else who has helped.

Here is a transcript of one of the letters from the pupils of Pinagalaan :

“May the power of the Lord be with us always !

As a pupil of Pinagalaan Elementary School me and my schoolmates were very much grateful for having a kind persons and friends like you.  The shool supplies that we received a month ago were very much useful since most of our parents cannot afford to buy all the needed equipments in school.

We hope and pray that your valuable and unending support will help us achieve a brighter future. 

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours

Ronald J. Limayag (pupil), Rasgie C. Bayo (pupil), Ernie P. Sadiagon (pupil)”

 

As you can see in this photo, many of the IP children do not wear shoes.    

And from the teachers came the following letter  :

 “May the Holy Spirit be with you always.

Our school is looking forward to have a fruitful and productive pupils.  As teachers, we develop pupils not only in academic but also we enculcate moral and spiritual values that somehow we could contribute to their growth as Christians. 

In spite of things we did, we found that there are factors that hinders our goals.  One of these is malnutrition due to the low incomed parents. Another factor is the lack of school materials such as books, workbooks, and other school supplies which is needed by the pupils to enhance learning.

Thus the children as well as their parents were very glad and thankful that they received some school supplies from your kind hearted support.  These little things will be great things if there are people behind us that has a heart of gold to the poor people like us.

Thank you very much and more power !

Your sisters in Christ, Annaliza C Campos (teacher), Arlene M. Gonzaga, (teacher) and Levie R. Pasecio (teacher)

The house of an IP family whose children go to Pinagalaan Elementary School 

One of the things that has been happening since my last update is that today I used 2,000 pisos of the money from your donations to pay the school fees of the 20 poorest IP children for the academic year.  The names of the children whose school fees you have paid are :

Jessabelle Guyo (Grade 2),  Renante Lahat (Grade 1), Johnrey Peling (Grade 1),  Sunnyboy Lahat (Grade 4), Jevear Guyo (Grade 2),  Jushua Guyo (Grade 2),  Angelica Lahat (Grade 2), Jerom Guyo (Grade 3), Mee Ann Peling (Grade 3), Jessica Peling (Grade 3), Gilbert Cahoy (Grade 3), Jennyrose Cahoy (Grade 1), Jerry Guyo (Grade 4),  Jeson Guyo (Grade 3),  Jessica Talingting (Grade 4), Reneboy Talingting (Grade 1), Renato Talingting (Grade 1), Jerwin Lahat (Grade 4), Jouram Guyo (Grade 4), Jotham Guyo (Grade 4),

Before you ask, despite the limited number of surnames they are not just from one or two very prolific families.  In fact, the Guyo children in the list are from 3 families : their mothers are Mrs Jimmy Guyo, Mrs Melicio Guyo and Mrs Johny Guyo.  However, because of the tribal nature of Manobo society the Manobo families in the area tend to be related, leading to a few surnames dominating the list of pupils.  However, because we are targeting help the poorest families, in some cases more than one child from that family may be getting their fees paid by your generosity. 

These children come from the poorest IP families in the area, and have very basic living conditions.

 The house of one of the IP families whose children are at Pinagalaan School

We are also planning the feeding programme for the malnourished children in the school.  Local advice is that the time when food is in shortest supply amongst the subsistence farming families is from October to March, so for those months we will feed the children in school on thursdays and fridays.  The reason for choosing thursdays and fridays is that the teachers have told us that by that point in the week the children’s families have run out of food for the week, leading to the children being absent to try and help their parents get money to feed them.  By feeding the children in school those days we hope to encourage them to come to school for the full week and also help them eat on days when they might otherwise have little or no food available to them.

I have now managed to establish the costs of feeding the children in school.  It will cost about 20 pisos (£0.18) per child per day or 1,040 pisos (£9.67) per child per for six months (based on 2 days a week for 26 weeks) to give them a good nutritious meal.

So anyone who gives ten pounds to the project will know that they have contributed enough to provide in-school feeding to a malnourished child for a whole six months !

But we have around 220 children in the school, and we would like to be able to help them all, so we still need lots of support !

Our First Visit to Pinagala-an School

The children crowd around to greet our arrival !

On Tuesday June 13th I, along with the manager of the Water District and a few of his staff, visited Pinagalaan to offer our help to the school and to distribute packs of school materials to the children.  The packs were tailored to the age group involved – grade one got a writing pad, drawing pad, crayons, ruler, pencils, sharpener, eraser and pencil case, whereas Grades 5 and 6 got a formal essay jotter, two notepads, pens and pencils, a sharpener, ruler and an eraser. They were very gratefully received, and the children were very excited.

Grade 1 pupils display the school packs they were given

Before beginning distribution of the packs we had a meeting with the school principal and the teachers to explain what we were trying to do – basically to try to help the children (particularly poor, indigenous pupils) stay in school for longer by providing them with school materials, and helping to develop livelihood opportunities for the parents to enable them to keep their children in school for longer (and to be able to afford to feed them !). 

The children happily begin using their new pencils and jotters.

We also want to help to make the children more aware of the need to care for the environment of the area so the supply of clean water to the communities is not harmed by environmentally damaging farming or logging activities.  This is important since their future livelihoods will depend on conserving that environment – especially as most of them will grow up to be farmers.  It is important that they learn how to use sustainable farming techniques, especially when farming steeply sloping hills.  Apart from the need to conserve soil so as to maintain crop yields and stop the rivers and reservoirs becoming full of silt, there is a steep hill above the school which must be protected from the risk of landslips like the one that recently happened in the Southern Leyte area of the Philippines.

 

Providing the Principal with posters on environmental education - focusing on the management of mountain areas which supply water to towns downstream as well as to the local communities.

To help encourage the teachers to address these issues in the class we gave the principal two copies of a poster (one in English and one in Visayan) which explained about the importance of caring for the water catchment.   

 

The Principal (right) and Grade 1 teacher (left) explain to me about the problems of running a school in a poor upland community. 

With 53 children the Grade 1 class (6 year olds) is very crowded. Three children share each desk though they were designed for two, and there is just one teacher.  By Grade 4 (9 years old) less than half will still be attending school.  Instead, they will be working to help their parents support them. At present there are only 23 in Grade 4. The figures speak for themselves !

The Grade 2 Classroom at Pinagalaan is fairly basic timber building – at least it is well ventilated !

The school covers a large area where there is no public transport. Some of the children walk up to three hours each way in order to attend school. As school starts at 7.30 this means they leave home before 5am in order to get there in time ! School finishes at 4pm, so the children who live a long way away will not get home until 8 at night, and will then have to set out again before 5am the next morning.  No wonder the teachers say they are tired in class !

The children from the indigenous communities are often absent from school on thursdays and fridays as their parents have run out of food for the week by then, and they therefore have to stay home or help their parents to earn money.

Today we discussed :

• educating the children, including increasing their level of environmental awareness,
• training them how to manage their environment more sensitively to preserve it for the future,
• making sure they leave school with an understanding of how to farm the land in a sustainable manner, and
• how we might provide training in new livelihood opportunities for the parents to help them to keep their children in education for longer and to raise household incomes and thus alleviate poverty.

A tall order, but we will do out best ! 

Pinagala-an Adopt a School Project

The local Water District in the mountain area where I work is trying to establish an Adopt-a-School Project.  The school they want to help is Pinagalaan Elementary School, which is in a remote mountain area known as the Northern Interior. 

The school has 220 pupils and seven teachers, but no library, play equipment, sports equipment or even books.  Many of the children can not afford pens, pencils or writing pads for use in their lessons.  

The parents of the children are labourers, vendors and flower planters whose income is insufficient for their basic family needs, including food. 

As a result the children are malnourished, underachieve at school, and drop out before reaching the higher grades in order to help their parents earn money by selling flowers in nearby market towns.

75% of pupils in Pinagalaan are malnourished and are therefore slow learners.

A third of the children are from the Manobo tribe.  Indigenous peoples tend to be amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged of the area's inhabitants.

The environment has been severely damaged by activities such as illegal logging as people struggle to find any way they can to feed their family. Part of the project therefore aims to educate children about the need to protect the environment. 

The area is very remote and is accessed by an abandoned logging road.  The state of the road is so bad that much of the barangay (village) is only acessible by foot, horse and motorbike (during the dry season !).  On average the children walk 3 km to get to school (6 km round trip). There is no electricity in Pinagalaan, so no TV or electric light !

The project has a range of different objectives, including :

* to improve the level of educational achievement trough a feeding and deworming programme in school for malnourished children and the provision of vitamins

* to encourage the poorest children, especially Manobo children, to complete 6 years of elementary education by providing them with school supplies such as pencils, paper, etc.

*to encourage environmental awareness in children through activites such as tree planting, in order to reduce environmental destruction

* to provide books, shelves, tables and chairs for a school library

* to provide basic laboratory equipment to set up a school science lab

* to provide play equipment for a 'physical fitness park' (slide, swings, see saw etc)

* to provide the basic supplies needed to set up a school clinic (bandages, plasters, sterilising alcohol, and basic medicines) 

* to help parents support their children through school by providing low-income parents with training in new skills such as mushroom culture, duck raising, tailoring and food preservation which will enable them to increase their incomes.  

Although the Water District is providing staff effort to try and set up the project, the materials needed - such as school supplies, medicines, equipment, etc. – all need to be obtained through sponsorship and donations. There is no money currently available for this.  Hence the reason for the project title – Adopt-a-School.

The more money we can raise to support this project the more we can make a real difference to the lives of these children. This project is something which can change their whole future by enabling them to achieve the education and skills to make a better life for themselves.

I plan to use £100 donated by Mearns Parish Kirk, and some of the pencils, paper and books they donated, to support this project.  When I learnt about this project I told my husband Bill about it, and he has already managed to raise a further £200 in donations.  He has also committed himself to trying to raise more.  So a really big thanks to all of you – this gives the project a really good flying start. Your money will really make a difference. 

But let's not stop there – let's all make this project a huge success for the sake of all the children in the school, who don't have even the most basic of things which children in the UK can take for granted. 

Its a big task, with a lot of equipment and supplies needed. A large number of children and families are involved, so we still need more support.  Things which will help are :

* Money, of course, to buy things such as supplementary feeding, worming tablets, vitamins, medical supplies for the clinic, tables and chairs, etc.  

* pencils, pens and writing pads

* children's books, especially school books, educational books or books which teach children about caring for the environment    

* educational toys and equipment