The Intensity 7 earthquake that hit northwestern Luzon last July 27, 2022 is one of the most destructive natural calamities that the Philippines has experienced in recent years. The shaking had severely damaged infrastructure including commercial and school buildings, hospitals, and bridges. It was a devastating start to an otherwise hopeful beginning of a new school year for schools affected by the earthquake.
Our engaged and compassionate grade school students, parents, and faculty and staff, under the guidance of the Student Activity Program Office, Filipino, CLE, and Social Studies Departments, have initiated the Tuloy Eskwela Project. This project seeks to benefit the teachers and students of Velasco Elementary School in Tayum and Bañacao Elementary School in Bangued, Abra in consultation with Dr. Hedwig Belmes, Curriculum and Instruction Chief of the Department of Education – Abra.
The Tuloy Eskwela Project started with a donation drive that ran from August 15 to September 8, 2022. The Kinder to Grade 6 students, together with their parents and their class advisers, prepared and packed the school supplies for the students in Abra. The members of the grade school faculty and staff also donated essential items, including books, to the teachers of the Abra school beneficiaries.
On September 22 to 23, 2022, a team of grade school administrators and teachers, composed of Mr. Jim Tuscano, Mrs. Catherine Lugay, Mrs. Joyce Imperio, Mrs. Maritess Bautista, and Mr. Rafael Enriquez, traveled to Abra and personally handed over the school kits, t-shirts, essential items, Wikahon sets, English dictionaries to the teachers and students of the Abra schools. Grade School Guidance Counselor Mr. Rafael Enriquez also conducted a psychosocial support session on basic counseling skills to the teachers of both schools.
The team met with Mayor JB Bernos of La Paz, who accompanied the team throughout the distribution and training sessions. His son, Joseph Bernos II, a Grade 6 Xaverian, also helped out in the distribution of the school kits. The team also thanked the office of Congresswoman Ching Bernos in assisting the team to mobilize the transfer of the boxes of school kits, essential items, and books from Manila to Abra.
The school heads of the two beneficiary schools also took to their official school pages on Facebook to extend their gratitude to the Xavier School community.
The activity ended with the whole community of Bañacao Elementary School expressing their gratitude to the teachers and students of Xavier School and to CID Chief Hedwig Belmes for recommending the school as a beneficiary of the said project, as well as to all who supported the whole project.
It is the Xavier School Grade School community’s hope that through this project, the teachers and students of the Abra school beneficiaries are equipped and ready for the reopening of schools two and a half years after the lockdown.
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Maybe we can do this more often