UPLB pitches in for bid to build 10,000 classrooms

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—A little sacrifice, like walking instead of riding the jeep to the next class or giving up a glass of frozen drink for a day, is all that it takes to be part of a nationwide campaign to build 10,000 classrooms for public schools in the Philippines.

At the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), students, teachers and employees were encouraged to donate P10 of their daily allowances throughout the first semester to the “UPLB Moves for TEN Moves.”

“Here at the UPLB, our target is to raise P600,000 by October. That’s the (estimated) cost to build one classroom,” said UPLB campaign coordinator Kim Sony Mendoza, 20.

The fund-raising campaign is taken from the nationwide drive to improve public school facilities, dubbed as “TEN (The Entire Nation) Moves.”

The TEN Moves campaign, launched in 2011 by an alliance of private organizations and managed by the Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI), aims to get two million people to donate P10 a day (P300 per month for 10 months) from January to October this year.

Mendoza, a delegate to the Ayala Young Leaders Congress this year, decided to replicate the TEN Moves in UPLB, where he is also a senior communication arts student, through the “UPLB Moves for TEN Moves,” which was launched on Wednesday during the university’s freshman orientation.

Mendoza, with the help of the university’s Student Organizations and Activities Division, formed a pool of volunteers called “movers” to help run the campaign.

So far, 30 out of over 180 UPLB student organizations have committed to help raise the money. The university would also issue a memorandum “encouraging” teachers and employees to donate, Mendoza said.

While students are asked to donate, “they can also ask help from their parents and family,” Mendoza said. He said the movers’ core group plans to set up booths around campus, place donation boxes or cans in business establishments and go “classroom hopping” to raise funds.

“There are over 10,000 students in UPLB. If we can get everyone to donate, that would only be P60 from each student to raise until October. I believe P600,000 is very possible,” Mendoza said.

Florence Ann de Castro, from AFI and TEN Moves secretariat, said UPLB was the first to launch the campaign at the university level.

Proceeds will be used to build classrooms in public schools in Camarines Sur, Sorsogon and Camarines Norte in Luzon; Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Bohol and Samar in the Visayas; and Sarangani, Basilan, North Cotabato, Tawi-Tawi, Sultan Kudarat and Zamboanga Sibugay in Mindanao, according to the TEN Moves website.

“This isn’t just an opportunity to help but it is our responsibility,” said Mendoza.