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VOL. 67

Comic books, pencils, pads of paper

NO. 227 SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2013

DAVAO CITY - PHILIPPINES

32 PAGES

P10.00

BY YAS D. OCAMPO

Back then, a woman stayed for months in a Glan, Saranggani community hours away from Davao City and met for the first time pupils with the strongest resolve in their pursuit for education. Distant from centralized services from government agencies and other nongovernment organizations, the teachers assigned in the local elementary school improvised whenever their supplies of pens and paper would run out. The solution was ingenious, environmentally friendly, too. The teachers harvested banana leaves for papers. For pencils, the teachers divided broom sticks (silhig tukog), which the students would use to write their first ABCs. Thus began the Lapis at Papel Kulang Pa project, initiated by the Batch 81 of the Holy Cross of Mintal. The lack of school supplies goes without saying in areas such as that mountaintop at Glan. Ems told stories of kids being sent back to their homes because of having no school supplies. The kids would cry, saying that their parents had no money for a pad of paper, or worse, one pencil. Over the years, the small organization has made headway into the lives of hundreds of children all over Mindanao. The group began collecting pencils in January 2011, targeting 200 pad papers from Grade 1, and 1,000 pencils. In February 2011, in partnership with the GenSan UCCP Pag Ugmad sa Kabataan Foundation, the group was able to give out school supply packets to around 30 beneficiaries. ( / COMIC / 16)

HE IMPULSE to give back started as early as 2007.

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