Building safe havens for ‘Yolanda’-hit public schoolchildren
In San Fernando Central Elementary School in Tacloban City before super typhoon “Yolanda” struck some provinces in the Eastern Visayas region in November last year, around 2,940 students had been trying to fit themselves in only 35 classrooms.
Their situation was only one among other schools suffering from congested classrooms and overpopulation.
When the whole world witnessed the catastrophic damage brought about by Yolanda, a huge influx of donors locally and internationally poured down their assistance and services to aid the victims.
One of them is the partnership among the Department of Education (DepEd), Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), and the Insular Foundation which pledged to build a one-storey, three-classroom building for San Fernando Central Elementary School.
The school has one of the biggest student populations in the area.
Amid the trauma schoolchildren suffered, the project aims to provide safe havens for the students, some of whose family members died and houses were damaged during the typhoon’s onslaught.
“Though we cannot replace the lives lost during super typhoon Yolanda, we can help in erecting structures that will serve as safe havens for the public school children of Tacloban City,” Insular Life Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Vicente R. Ayllón said.
It is the first time for Insular Life to be involved in building classrooms. However, the corporate social responsibility arm of Insular Life has been providing college scholarship programs for poor but deserving students since 1960s.
“This is the first time that we will become part of a program or a project that literally builds brick and mortar structures to house hundreds of students as they go about their everyday school life. We are very happy that we can be part of the Department of Education’s effort in constructing a disaster-resilient building,” Ayllon said.
His mother being a native of Samar, Ayllon shared that Leyte has a special place in his heart. He hopes that the shared mission among their partners will result in the healing and recovery of the child survivors.
The construction of the said classroom building starts in December.