1,000 volunteers join school community brigade in Cebu

By Hazel F. Gloria

Thursday 28th of June 2012

CEBU CITY, June 28 (PIA) -- About 1,000 volunteers joined the School Community Brigade initiated by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) in the municipalities of Catmon and Bantayan last May 24 and 26.

The brigade is a collaborative endeavor that seeks to involve various stakeholders from different organizations, volunteers, and other interested individuals in improving school facilities to provide students a better learning environment.

Participants of the two-day activity include parents, teachers, barangay officials from the local government units of Bantayan and Catmon, employees from the RAFI Micro-finance Bantayan branch, and other volunteers. Pupils also helped in repainting the chairs.

“Through joining the school community brigade, I learned how to paint walls, ceilings, and chairs. In activities like this, one should not mind whether or not he knows how to do the task. If everyone is willing to cooperate, the job will surely get done. As a mother, it is my obligation to help in the activities related to the education of my children,” Eufemia Ybañez, 47 and parent of three pupils in Tamiao Elementary School, said in Cebuano.

The volunteers took part in the activities like school clean-up, painting of classroom furniture and school buildings, minor repairs and the preparation of indigenous tree nurseries.

On August 21, RAFI will turn over classrooms to the school administrators of the six elementary schools in Bantayan and Catmon namely, Vito Elementary School, Tamiao Elementary School, Baod Elementary School, Sillon Elementary School, Kabac Elementary School, and Panalipan Elementary School.

The municipalities of Catmon and Bantayan belong to the first batch of beneficiaries of the school rehabilitation program of RAFI, which is now on its third phase of implementation.

The rehabilitation program is one of the initiatives of RAFI's education focus area. Other focus areas, include Integrated Development, Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Culture & Heritage and Leadership & Citizenship.

For further details, contact Jicel Reve Gabriel at 418-7234 loc. 209, or visit www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph. (HFG/RAFI-PIA7)