Bank employees paint murals for Tacloban school buildings
TACLOBAN CITY—Jazal Escalante left the comfort of her home in Manila and came to this city with her colleagues to help beautify school buildings by painting murals.
Escalante, with 20 of her colleagues from Deutsche Bank, painted the walls of the four new classrooms of Northern Tacloban City National High School (NTCNHS) in Barangay New Kawayan, about 14 kilometers from the city proper.
The four classrooms are in a two-story building constructed by the SM Foundation. Deutsche Bank donated the armchairs and school supplies.
Each wall, measuring 3×7 meters, have different paintings but follow one theme—encourage students to protect nature.
“It feels relaxing painting this mural. We are doing this for . . . a purpose. We hope students who will use these classrooms will appreciate nature considering what happened here because of [Supertyphoon] ‘Yolanda,’” said the 29-year-old Escalante.
The bank employees did not find the work difficult. They actually only added colors to the sketches of John Tejones, another volunteer.
“It’s like playing, daubing paint on the wall but with a purpose, which is to help create awareness among our students to preserve our environment, nature,” said Lindsey Lanuza, 32.
The group, led by their vice president for implementation services Jojo Reyes, conducted the activity on April 23. They worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Deutsche Bank employees spent their own money to buy the paints and brushes. They also paid for their own airfare to and from Tacloban.
“The murals are intended to inspire students, especially after what happened here because of ‘Yolanda,’” Reyes said.
The construction of the school building, which was funded by SM Foundation, started in October and was completed in March.
There were 650 students at NTCNHS during the last school year. The enrollment is expected to rise this school year because NTCNHS is near a resettlement site for families who lost their houses to ‘Yolanda,’ which hit the city on Nov. 8, 2013.
