MANILA, Philippines - On Monday, June 15, more than 43,000 public schools will welcome millions of elementary and high school students.
The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) helped gather donations for the repair and cleanup of 234 of these public schools through Brigada Eskwela. Majority of these schools are in the most needy areas of the country.
Brigada Eskwela is the yearly project of the Department of Education, where it partners with the communities and the private sector to prepare public school classrooms for the opening of classes.
The assistance is also part of the bigger education program of PBSP which aims to help improve the quality of education in public schools, bring children to school, and keep them from dropping out.
Last year, PBSP members and donors spent P101 million in support of basic education and Information Technology (IT). Of this, P 1.5 million worth of donations, mostly in-kind, was mobilized from PBSP’s member companies and partners.
This year, the donations range from books, school supplies, food items, clothes, paint, galvanized iron sheets, and other needs for classroom repair from 30 of PBSP’s member-companies for this year’s Brigada Eskwela Plus.
Companies who have sent their donations through PBSP are: Adarna House, Inc., Blue, Bell Corp., CDO-Foodsphere, Inc., Citi, Diwa Learning Systems, Inc., East West Seed Co., Inc., Goodwill Bookstore/Katha Publishing, Inc., Ho Tong Hardware, Holcim Philippines, Inc., International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), Jopa Enterprises, Inc., Lucerne Jewelers, M&H Food Corp. (Henlin),
Manila Bankers Life Insurance Corp., Maxell Office Supply, MST Marine Services (Philippines), Inc., Pacific Paint Boysen (Philippines), Inc., Parity Values, Inc., Philex Mining Corp., Ramcar, Inc., Sterling Paper Products, The Bellevue Manila, The Bookmark, Inc., The Cravings Group, TSM Shipping Philippines, Inc., Union Galvasteel Corp., Virginia Foods, Corp.
Pacific Paints Boysen (Philippines), Inc. donated P600,000 worth of paint to the project.
Citi, Holcim Philippines, Inc., Ramcar Inc., SMART Communications, Inc., and TSM Shipping Philippines, Inc. have also sent teams of employee volunteers to help fix and clean up public schools before the opening of classes on June 15.