HAVE BIKE, WON’T HIKE A cluster of donated bicycles forms what could easily be a mobile version of the traditional Christmas tree in a concept called “Bike yuletide season.” MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON
LEGAZPI CITY—This is one Christmas tree that embodies the hopes and dreams of students—mostly from poor families—of Pagasa National High School in Barangay Rawis here.
The tree is made up of replicas of bicycles and carries the wish of the students to receive a donated bike they can ride to and from the school.
“I’m dreaming of a new bike this Christmas,” Khem Abejuro, 13, a Grade 8 student, says as he helps his schoolmates in decorating the tree and the school compound, using replicas of a bicycle made of recycled materials.
Abejuro, the third among six siblings, belongs to a poor family living in Barangay Bonga at the foot of Mayon Volcano.
Owning a bike would relieve his parents of the burden of giving him fare money for his daily school commute, he says, especially since he still has three younger siblings who are also in school and need fare and food money.
Abejuro’s father, a tricycle driver, earns just enough for food and often can no longer give him money for transportation, the reason the boy has to walk 5 kilometers each way between his house and school.
High grades for a bike
“If I’ll be given a bike, I promise that I will finish my school with high grades the donors would be happy and proud of me,” Abejuro says, flashing a toothy smile.
Julius, 14, another Grade 8 student also living in Bonga, says he is filled with excitement at the thought that he, too, can qualify as a bicycle recipient.
Right now, he says, he often comes late to school because there are only a few public utility jeepneys that ply the route to his village. Travel can get dangerous since most of these PUJs are overloaded.
Bicycle project
Having a bicycle, Julius says, would be a big help to his mother, who is working as a house help in the nearby town of Daraga.
Abejuro and Julius have their school principal, Jeremy A. Cruz, to thank for the opportunity to own a bike.
Cruz started the bicycle-for-poor-students project, called “Bisikleta para sa Banquero (Bicycles for Banquero),” in 2014 when he was still the principal of Banquerohan National High School located in the village of the same name, also in this city.
Cruz, who in November 2014 launched the Helping Educate Less Privileged Students (HELPS) project, had then said that he came up with the project to address the increasing percentage of dropouts from among the school’s poor students who did not have the means to go to school.
The bike project, he said, symbolized hope for the recipients—that there was a way out of poverty.
By the first week of December 2014, Cruz was able to collect from donors 130 BMX bikes that were in turn given out to the poorest of the student population.
Those who received the bikes were only required to maintain a 100-percent attendance in school and a passing grade in all subjects. They also had to turn over the bikes to the school after they graduated from high school so that these could be used by other students.
6 bicycles so far
The bicycle program was so successful in drastically reducing absences among the poor students of Banquerohan National High School that Cruz decided to bring the project with him when he became the principal of Pagasa National High School in February.
Cruz says that, like his former students in Banquerohan, the students in Pagasa showed a lot of enthusiasm about the possibility that they could become beneficiaries of the program.
So far, only six bicycles have been given by donors. Cruz says he is hoping to get more, hence the plea for more bike donations embodied in the Christmas tree project.
“I think this is the best Christmas present we can give to poor students who are really dedicated to finish their education despite the hardship in life,” he says.
Cruz says it only costs an average of P16 a day to get to and from school, but it’s such a big sum for the poor students of Pagasa National High School that many have no choices but to be absent from their classes.
“If these students will receive bikes, the end result is that there will be an increase in school achievement as the absences will be eliminated,” he says.