Cathay Pacific gives Olango’s public library
Photo shows employees of Cathay Pacific Airways and representatives of PBSP and DepED during the official turnover of Olango’s first public library.
A Hong Kong-based airline contributes to the development of Cebu’s Olango Island by building a facility that fosters better learning through reading.
Cathay Pacific Airways, Ltd. with Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) turned over a library building to Poo Elementary School (PES) of Barangay San Vicente, Lapu-lapu City. The building is considered the first public library of Olango as it will be open to all residents and students of the island, which has a total student population of 8,903 from 15 schools as of the previous school year.
The activity also officially signals Cathay Pacific’s commitment to adopt PES as the recipient of their CSR projects for education.
“We at Cathay Pacific are very committed to grow the business along with its local community and we believe that this (library) is a long-term investment. We believe better education includes the long-term well-being of the community and that is why we are here,” Cathay Pacific’s Cebu Manager Sally Wong said.
The library project is co-funded by U-Freight Philippines, Inc. and Trans Global Consolidators, Inc. and implemented by PBSP with the Department of Education (DepED).
PBSP Visayas Executive Chairman Jose Antonio Aboitiz shared how the library can be beneficial to the schools of Olango as it also serves to support the country’s ten-point basic education agenda and DepED’s Every Child a Reader program.
“Education is one of the four priority programs of PBSP, and we engage with the public and private sectors to invest in education projects that ultimately increase enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, decrease dropouts, and improve quality of learning gauged through the mean percentage scores of students during the national achievement test,” he added.
On the other hand, PES principal Zenaida Abrasada also said that the library will help teachers improve their students’ poor reading habits as reflected by their latest informal reading indexes (IRI).
IRIs help teachers assess their students’ reading performance and determine the amount and kind of support the students need to improve it.
“With the library, we have a comfortable venue and more books and instructional materials our teachers can use that would encourage our students to read more,” she said.
In 2011, Cathay Pacific became a member of PBSP, the country’s largest corporate-led social development foundation in the Philippines. Since 2010, Cathay Pacific has been contributing to the development of Olango Island with PBSP by planting mangroves with the pupils of PES and donating books and reference materials for the school. The library building project is the first major CSR project Cathay Pacific did for education.
The library, which costs more than PHP 600,000, contains a comfort room, books and reference materials, tables and chairs, and a separate reading area for children.
“This is just a beginning of all the investments we are going to put in the local community so let’s work harder together to provide a better future for the Philippines,” Wong added.
The activity was also attended by U-Freight Philippines, Inc. President Michael Aquino, Cathay Pacific Airways Manager Cebu Sally Wong, PBSP Visayas Executive Board Chairman Jose Antonio Aboitiz, Department of Education (DepED) District Supervisor Viviene Taneo, and Poo Barangay Captain Cyrus Eyas.
Aside from co-funding the library, U-Freight Philippines also committed to provide computer units for the library.
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