BDO, Consuelo foundations to build another school building

MANILA, Philippines - Another school building in a typhoon-devastated area will soon rise as the BDO Foundation signed a memorandum of agreement with Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation recently.

The beneficiary of two school buildings with a total of eight classrooms is the Mondragon Agro-Industrial High School in Mondragon, Northern Samar.

The project is the third to be undertaken by BDO Foundation in partnership with Consuelo Foundation and will be a 50-50 partnership.

The first was a two-story, four-classroom school building for Giporlos National Trade School in Eastern Samar which was turned over in June 2015.

Construction is ongoing for another two-story, four-classroom school building to benefit the  Lawaan National School of Craftsmanship and Home Industries in Lawaan, Eastern Samar which is nearing completion in time for the opening of school year 2017-2018.

Mondragon Agro-Industrial High School is a public technical-vocational high school which specializes in agricultural and industrial education and serves 988 students.

After the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, more than 330 of its students had to attend classes in makeshift classrooms and in the school gymnasium.

The new school building will be fully equipped. It will be constructed in accordance with specifications set by Department of Education and will have a similar design with school buildings built by SM Foundation, another program partner of BDO Foundation in its other projects.

 The chairs that come with the school building are built by persons with disability to help them earn a living. 

The initiative is in keeping with BDO Foundation’s disaster response advocacy and long-term rehabilitation program in calamity-stricken provinces, which, according to BDO Foundation president Mario Deriquito, is the foundation’s focus.

BDO Foundation is among organizations that can immediately mobilize its volunteer corps when disaster strikes anywhere in the country. The presence of BDO branches in different parts of the country ensures that there are frontlines for the Foundation’s projects in the areas.

Present at the MOA signing were Deriquito, BDO Foundation VP and program director Rose Espinosa, BDO Foundation trustee L. Jerome Guevara, Consuelo Foundation director for administration Anna Marie Chanco and Consuelo Foundation director for programs Nicanor Torre.