Buddhist foundation volunteers adopt Manila school

“We want to create a clean and friendly environment for the students when the school year starts in June.”

This was what Tzu Chi Foundation volunteer Richard Tan said on Tuesday of the group’s efforts to repair old and dilapidated classrooms at P. Guevarra Elementary School in Binondo, Manila.

About 20 other volunteers were helping out by repainting and cleaning two adopted classrooms in the school during the Department of Education’s yearly “Brigada Eskwela” campaign which started on Monday.

“This is our way of helping not only the school but also the students who mostly come from poor families in the area,” Tan told the Inquirer.

Of the school’s 7,000 pupils, about 50 percent come from urban poor communities like Baseco and Parola Compound, according to Janet S. Castaneda, a Grade 4 teacher.

“Forty-seven students are accommodated in these 35-square-meter classrooms every day for two sessions (morning and afternoon),” Castaneda explained to the Inquirer.

She added that the chairs, wooden walls and floors of the classrooms easily get damaged because of daily use.

Tan said that the school administration reached out to them and asked for their group’s help in fixing and restoring some of the classrooms under the Brigada Eskwela program.

“We immediately said yes because we have been working with the school for several years since they started accepting evacuees whenever heavy floods hit Metro Manila,” he said.

Two classrooms were adopted by Tzu Chi volunteers who immediately got to work.

“We are going to complete the repainting and repair of these two classrooms before Friday which is the end of Brigada [Eskwela]. We hope that with this simple act, we can help the students better concentrate on their studies and pay more attention to their teachers,” Tan said.

He added that Tzu Chi would also donate to the schools new bookshelves and electric fans to replace the old ones which were no longer usable.

May Chu Wong, a 60-year-old Buddhist volunteer who helped in cleaning the classroom floors, said that she really wanted to offer her free time  because she has seen the situation of public schools in the country.

“We hope to give public school students an environment which is conducive for learning even if they are crowded together in a very small room,” Wong told the Inquirer.

She added that her children were not able to experience these inconveniences because they attend private schools which have air-conditioned classrooms.

“We want to show our compassion to these students who have less in life,” Wong said.

VOLUNTEERS of Tzu Chi Foundation are not afraid to get their hands dirty as they go about turning their adopted school, P. Guevarra Elementary School, in Binondo, Manila, into “a clean and safe learning environment” for its students. Maricar B. Brizuela

Tan, who served as the head of the volunteers, said that aside from assisting the school, the foundation was also planning to donate books and school supplies to the students as they did in previous years.

“We also want to conduct seminars where we can share to the students the teachings of Buddhism and how they can be better citizens of the society,” he added.

Tzu Chi volunteers said they still had a lot to do to help in the improvement of the educational facilities in the country but noted that they were willing to do it one step at a time.

“Hopefully in the future, we can find ways to provide financial assistance to families who cannot afford to send all their children to school,” Tan said.

The group has also adopted schools in San Mateo, Rizal, Marikina and Quezon City where they offer medical-dental help, financial assistance and other needed services.