Educating Basilan children

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and Philam Foundation recently signed a memorandum of agreement for the 10th and final year of the Aid for Basilan Children (ABC) project.

The now decade-old partnership between the largest corporate-led foundation and the leading life insurance company in the Philippines aims to support the education of less-fortunate children in the Basilan Island.

Through this project, the recipient students are provided with scholarships, books, and other materials to support them in their learning process.

The ABC project also facilitates to improve the scholars’ capacity for learning through parent-teacher training, nutrition programs, and better school facilities. Also, this corporate social initiative is known to keep the students in classrooms instead of dropping out. Some of the examples why they drop out of school could be attributed to poverty, poor health, and disruptions in community life.

The memorandum for the ABC project, which was signed by Rafael Lopa, executive director of PBSP and Max Ventura, executive director of Philam Foundation, is also looking at a new model for building classrooms that could eventually lower construction cost compared to the Department of Education’s (DepEd) existing example.

Initial plans were to provide aid for the Basilan children’s primary education but because the beneficiaries have performed very well in their academics, it was decided that the project should be extended up to secondary education. Philam and PBSP are open for prospective partnerships that will boost the financial assistance given to the Basilan scholars for tertiary level education.