A P25 school pack goes a long way

MANILA, Philippines - National Book Store Foundation is again spearheading Project Aral to help public school children all over the country to get started in the new school year.

Last year, NBS customers donated about P92,907 units or almost P2 million pesos worth of school supplies to give to beneficiary schools.

This year, for Project Aral 2, NBS will match every school pack to be donated by customers worth P25, which contains a notebook, pad paper, pencil and sharpener. The foundation is targeting for customers to raise at least 50,000 kits, which will be matched for a total of 100,000 kits to give to students of public elementary schools nationwide.

NBS Foundation has so far evaluated 90 schools and is targeting to cover 150 schools from Babuyan Islands and Batanes to down south in the ARMM region.

Last year, Project Aral was held both before the school year started in June and after typhoon Ondoy devastated public schools towards the end of 2009.

Beneficiaries have included public elementary schools in Ilocos Sur, Cagayan Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Rizal, Albay, Camarines Sur, Bacolod, Iloilo. Bohol, Cebu, Dumaguete, Leyte, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and GenSan.

For many shoppers, P25 is loose change. To a public-school child, it could very well mean having the enthusiasm to start and continue throughout the school year.