STAR Group's ABKDamayan helps out-of-school-youth get diploma

MANILA, Philippines – ABKDamayan, one of the projects of Operation Damayan, the humanitarian arm of The STAR Group of Publications with a mission to help out-of-school youths get an elementary and high school diploma, recently held its graduation ceremony for students who passed the 2010 Department of Education-Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS) Accredited and Equivalency Test for elementary and secondary levels.

Since it started in 2003, ABKDamayan has produced 202 graduates for both elementary and high school, including the 23 students who passed the ALS exam administered last October.

“We are very thankful to STAR president and CEO Miguel G. Belmonte for his continued support for this kind of program by the DepEd. We hope that other non-government offices will follow,” said Virginia Calixto, supervisor for the DepEd-BALS-Manila division, during the graduation rites last May 6.

Alpha Tolentino, ABKDamayan staff, said that for the past five years, there has been at least one student from every batch who was able to get the perfect score of 120 in the test, “solid proof that our program is effective and our ALS implementers are very good.”

“We have to admit that this project is very tiring, lasting for almost ten months every year. But when we see the happy and fulfilled faces of our students, we feel that all our efforts have paid off,” added Emie Cruz, ABKDamayan principal.