The past month was a very busy time for us, with a flurry of different activities.
Last month, the country was taken by surprise by tropical storm Ondoy and the devastating blow it dealt most of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Many people lost their homes, possessions and even their lives from flash floods or landslides brought on by Ondoy’s torrential rains.
Fortunately, response from the government, private organizations and individuals was immediate. Those who were able did their part in helping those in need. Donations in the form or foodstuffs, cash, time and resources poured in from the country and from abroad.
We also did our part in coming to the aid of Ondoy victims. We collected donations from different companies and individuals and gave out relief goods to our affected scholars in Taytay, Rizal, Bagong Silangan and San Francisco Del Monte, Quezon City and Pulilan, Bulacan. We distributed relief goods in the form of groceries, used clothing, beddings, medicines, and personal hygiene supplies such as toothbrushes, soap and shampoos.
We teamed up with our partner schools in Siena, Taytay, Quezon City and St. Dominic in Pulilan, Bulacan to identify families who were affected and gave emergency relief goods to those who needed them most. We did the same for our pre-school and elementary scholars with ERDA Foundation. Our pre-school scholars were among the most needy – all being from Bagong Silangan, one of the areas hit hardest by the typhoon.
Almost all our scholars and their families lived in evacuation centers around the community for a few weeks, with their homes underwater and everything they had either covered in mud or washed away by the flood.
Fortunately, none of our scholars or their families died, and most of them now have their houses back up and are leading normal lives.
October 24, we went to Bagong Silangan with ERDA and a sponsor to distribute some of our last donations of used clothing, beddings and other useful items.
As relief efforts wind down all over the Metro, we have also started to shift our focus back to our scholarship program and other outreach projects. We have stopped actively collecting donations for victims of tropical storm Ondoy, but if anyone is still interested in donating for that cause, we will be more than happy to recommend you to ERDA Foundation who will give donations to families of Bagong Silangan.
One of our regular outreach programs that we did recently was our Eyeglass Project, which we do twice a year. We completed our second one October 21 and gave out 360 pairs of prescription eyeglasses to the boys and girls of Baseco Elementary School in Tondo, Manila.
This eyeglass project was done in partnership with our good friends at Springboard Foundation and 2 very good Charity Partners of ABC Foundation, who paid for all 360 pairs of eyeglasses given.
Baseco Elementary School has a population of more than 4,600 students with only 77 teachers. The campus is cramped but clean and the administration and teachers all work hard in providing for the needs of the students. Most of the students are undernourished but the school has provided feeding programs with the help of government institutions and other private organizations.
The eyeglass program was a huge success and we are looking forward to doing it again next school year.
We are very grateful for all of the donors who have continually supported us, not only our regular programs, but also emergency projects like helping out Ondoy victims. We were overwhelmed with the positive response we received.
On a lighter note, the most unique donation we received for the relief of the typhoon victims were 2,000 pieces of ice cream bars, which we successfully distributed to very happy families at Taguig, Metro Manila. The ice cream bars may not have fed families for a week or a day, but instant smiles on the faces of the recipients and the happiness it brought were just as real as if we had given them a weeks’ worth of groceries.
