One Chair, One Child
#UpuanParaSaKinabukasan
YesPinoy Foundation’s – along with partners Lifeline Foundation Support Team, Inc. – project to rebuild and equip a school in a community devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in November last year.
Estancia, a second-class municipality in northern Iloilo, is about 135 kilometers from Iloilo City. It is known as “the Alaska of the Philippines” because of its rich and diverse marine life. However, due to overfishing, pollution and dangerous fishing methods, the waters of Estancia have of late failed to produce as much as they did in years past. The whole municipality has suffered because of this. Different areas of Estancia were badly affected by Yolanda. For, example, the storm was so powerful that the roof of Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College was completely blown off.
One building that was severely damaged was Estancia Central Elementary School, where more than 3,000 children study. They have endeavored to continue with their education, in spite of the terrible destruction, determined to fix their flood-ruined schoolbooks and other materials. They went back to school on November 25, 2013, among the ruins of their building. Surely, however, they deserve better.
Jose Sixto “Dingdong” Dantes, actor and founder of YesPinoy Foundation, is originally from Iloilo, and has been spearheading efforts to relief and rehabilitation in Estancia since mid-November, the first week after Yolanda struck.
One of the things that Dingdong committed to the people of Estancia is to rebuild Estancia Central Elementary School, this will be ready by June 2014. Yes!Pinoy Foundation has donated P 1,636,164.66 to the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) for the construction of the school.
At the same time, we at Lifeline Foundation Support Team, Inc., have been increasingly aware of the need for different NGOs and CSOs to collaborate and work hand in hand in the process of rebuilding Yolanda affected areas. The magnitude of work is enormous, and no organization can do it alone. Since one of our key advocacies is education, when we were approached by Dingdong to partner with them in this project, our immediate response was, “Yes!” And so “One Child, One Chair” was born.
Who knows who’ll be sitting in these chairs one day? It could be a scientist who cures HIV/AIDS or a certain kind of cancer. It could be a peace-maker who solves our decades-long problems in Mindanao. It could even be a future President of the Republic of the Philippines. Education is the seat of the country’s future. What a privilege to be able to say, “I supported the seat of my country’s future!
We are partnering together to raise P1.6 million for the 3000 chairs needed for the new Estancia Central Elementary School. Each chair costs Php 750, and anyone can give toward one, two or even more chairs so the students in Estancia Central Elementary School can have his or her very own chair!
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