Public asked to donate school supplies for Leyte students

Typhoon survivors and school workers salvage books from the school library at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Memorial Elementary School at typhoon-ravaged Tolosa town, Leyte province, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. A religious organization has launched an appeal to the public to donate schools supplies to the students in the storm-ravaged areas in the Visayas as classes are already set to open in a few weeks’ time. AP

MANILA, Philippines—A religious organization has launched an appeal to the public to donate schools supplies to the students in the storm-ravaged areas in the Visayas as classes are already set to open in a few weeks’ time.

Officials of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP-AMRSP), an inter-religious and inter-diocesan Church-based group, which has been conducting relief operations in typhoon-stricken northern Cebu, noted that students from grade schools and high schools in these areas are in dire need of school supplies after losing all their possessions to the typhoon.

Dubbed as ABAG Visayas, the group’s relief operation is particularly directed to far-flung villages of Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island, and other several island barangays (villages) like Mambacayao and Lipayran Island.

Father Gilbert S. Billena, RMP national vice-coordinator, said in an article posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines that with many schools badly affected, if not totally damaged by the typhoon, some have resumed having classes under the tent.

Billena said providing students with school supplies needed in their studies would help in their speedy recovery from the trauma left by the typhoon.

He said while most were traumatized by what happened when the typhoon struck, some understood that they needed to move on by beginning to hold classes.

Billena also said that the Holy Cross College in Carigara, Leyte; and St. Joseph High School in Dagami, Leyte, devastated by the typhoon sought help for their students who would go back to school on January 8, 2014.

“Thus, as part of our relief and rehabilitation campaign, we humbly ask your help for donations like notebooks, pencils, ballpens and bags and other necessary school supplies for the students,” Billena said.

The RMP is a mission partner of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.