RAFI, 4 towns sign pact to rebuild old classrooms

CEBU, Philippines - A memorandum of agreement was signed yesterday by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporation (RAFI) and the officials of the four municipalities in the province whose public schools are recipients of the foundation’s school rehabilitation program.

The agreement allows RAFI to help rebuild the old and neglected classrooms in the municipalities of Asturias, Bantayan, Catmon and Tuburan.

The signing of the agreement by RAFI president Roberto Aboitiz and the mayors from the four municipalities signals the start of the third phase of the school rehabilitation program of the foundation.

The school rehabilitation program of RAFI is also in line with the Adopt-A-School program of the Department of Education.

The project covers public elementary schools all over Cebu province and it also provides the platform for the collaboration among the different stakeholders in education like DepEd, LGU, school administrators and teachers.

Representatives of the recipients of the program from the phase one and two shared how their facilities changed and how the students are now eager to learn while using their new classrooms.

Building and fixing classrooms are not just their only goal but also establishing native tree nurseries in the recipient schools of the program with the collaboration of the GREENIN Philippines (Generation Redemption and Expansion of Natural resources Initiatives in the Philippines). RAFI had already repaired and turned over 450 classrooms in 136 schools all over Cebu province and will start the repair of the first batch of phase three of the program in February next year.

The LGU will provide the labor counterpart of not less than 30 percent of the total material cost while RAFI will shoulder 70 percent of the construction material cost. (FREEMAN)