It All Started with a Giraffe

Teaching could be so difficult most specially when you are teaching in a barrio. It takes a lot of courage and patience as you have walk at least 3 to 5 kilometers away from your own house. You would need to sacrifice your own comfort and convenient. You would have to sacrifice not seeing your family for 5 days. Above all, teaching in a barrio needs a lot of creativity as there are no or very few resources in the said school.

They Cry for Books

Schools in a barrio gets the least priority in terms of infrastructure and development. They get the least number of books as well. No libraries and proper teaching or instructional materials. My mother was once a a teacher in a barrio and we rarely see her during the weekdays and then she has to leave in the afternoon of Sunday or very early morning of Monday.

My brother Jan Irvin Domoguen Kis-ing follows my mothers footstep. He is also a teacher at a barrio. He is now teaching at Colalo Elementary School. One night during our volunteer work at the said school he mentioned how his library project started and here's the story:

One day, he was energetically teaching about animals and how they are pronounced. My brother said, "this is giraffe and it should be pronounced as gee-raf." Suddenly, one of his student profusely disagreed to my brother and said that it should be pronounced as giraf-fe because the letter "F" is doubled and there is an "E" at the end so it should be the pronounced at giraf-fi his student explained.

My brother asked the student to go ahead and look for the word in the dictionary. He advised his student to look for the dictionary in the library. As the student went ahead and look for the dictionary, my brother continued discussing about the other animal... He grabbed a picture and showed it to his class. Everyone describe it as a cat. My brother said they were wrong because it is not a cat rather it is a PANTHER. Everyone disagreed and they insisted that it was a cat.

When my brother was about to ask his student to go to the library and search for the difference of a panther and a cat. The student came back and said, "Sir there is no dictionary in the library!" To his dismay he just describe the panther to his student and gave them the difference between a cat and a panther.

My brother told himself that the students needs a better library at least to have some basic reference materials that his student could read. That is where he also realized that no one passes their homework every time he gave them definition of words, or proper word pronunciation. He first thought of Books From a Garbage where he is asking his students to collect plastic bottles, bottles, sando bags, papers, etc and they are selling it for a penny to buy books. From that, they were able to buy some books containing animal pictures and information about the animals. My brother thought added a Garden for Books where he asked help from his student to plant and that is where they were able to come up with their first ever dictionary.

Garden for Pencil Project by Jan Irvin Kis-ing

He is satisfied with the outcome though he knew that the progress is really slow. Plus the fact that there are some discouraging words on the side. I rarely see my siblings maybe once a year to be exact. So when we met sometime last year during his civil wedding. He jokingly asked me to donate a few books for the school library. We never discussed about it after that joke.

This is the birth of PROJECT MOUNTAIN ALPHABET.

The Old School Library

When I reached Manila, I sent SMS to my brother asking him to send me a project proposal so at least there's some documents I could show to everyone and it would help in my book collection. However, the Mankayan District Superintendent never signed the project proposal up to this date giving all sort of alibi's.

Collecting of books, fund raising and spreading the word about the project and its purpose has finally reach its end to bring the books and whatever we have solicited to Colalo Elementary School.

Last March 9, 2013 the group composed of 8 people including myself delivered the books from Metro Manila to its destination. Upon reaching Colalo Elementary School we started separating all the goodies and putting them in a school bag (all donated by TROFI).

Sorting of Goodies....

 

The Gift we shared C/O TROFI

These goes to one student.

We spent the whole day of DAY 2 in separating the books according to its subject and building bookshelves. At night we started fixing the books in the shelves and decorating the library.

Sorting of Books according to its kind and Re-Building the Library...

The students reads books as they sort it out...

Cleaning the Shelves...

Arranging the Books in the Shelves....

Some of the books and magazines we bring at Colalo Elementary School Library

We spent the morning of Day 3 through gift giving.

There's nothing in this world who could match to feeling of fulfillment to see our beloved teachers smiles.

 Here are the students who receives your gift...A picture taking with the volunteers

The children's laughter and smile and giggles is the trophy of every volunteer. It is so rewarding to see them really happy because of the gifts they receives from everyone who helped.

Our Trophy is to see them laugh!

See these kids giggle!

He smiles with joy!

Volunteers prepares the bags on the stage!

Isn't it fulfilling to see her smiles....

THE FINAL OUT PUT OF PROJECT MOUNTAIN ALPHABET ADOPT A LIBRARY!

The Panoramic View

 The Book Shelves

 The Teacher who started it all!

Freeway Summer and Spring Collections

Colorful, fun, outgoing, relaxed are just few of the adjectives I could immediately think of when I look at Freeway's Spring and Summer Collection. A few days back, I showed you the different look of their swimwear but I am also intrigued on their very own definition 

Also, it is wearable weather going out for a night life and or going to work. A perfect match to every lifestyle of every woman.

Check out their other cool stuff at their website.

Project Mountain Alphabet goes to Colalo Elementary School

I had this quick chat with my brother Jan Irvin as his wife gave birth to their first child and so excited for my first niece. After a quick chit chat we went down to business. I am helping him succeed in his library project for the school where he is teaching.

Colalo Elementary School is technically a school in a barrio. Good thing they have electricity in that place. My mother used to work on the said school and that's where we (me and my siblings) had our first encounter with the people of Colalo folks. Now, my brother is teaching there as well.

Now, we currently have 3 big boxes composed of old and new reference books, magazines (National Geographic, readers digest), encyclopedia, novels, and story books. Seeing their school library has tons of work to do and so we are all starting it one step at a time.

This time around I am thankful for everyone who is behind these project. Many thanks to Budget Biyahera for her books and blog post, to Special Education Philippines for the books you shared and of course to A Day In The Life of This Miss for your donations and helping out in our fund raising campaign.

To all Thomson Reuters Employee Manila who participated in the fund raising activity and book giving activity. Surely the books and donations you shared will be used by many. Angela Chua and Leigh Maneja, I am thankful for all the support and effort you have extended with our project.

To Rosalie Amparo of Development Bank of the Philippines, thank you for your support. We hope to see you in our upcoming projects as well. Truly you are an inspiration to many women.

Truly Rich Overseas Filipino Investors (TROFI) who are based in Singapore. We are grateful for your unparalleled support on this project. Your generosity is remarkable and far-reaching. A true "Kababayan," which makes us proud to be a Filipino.

Thank you as well to BOOK FOR A CAUSE for donating 3 boxes of text books. May God Almighty bless you more and may you always be successful in your chosen endeavor!

From left to right: Pastor Eden Singson of House of Grace Community Church (Taguig City) and Pastor Florante Pons of Tipas Christian Church (Taguig) with BFAC's Ramil Sumangil
Click here for their Facebook Account

The project is a resounding success which is a reflection of genuine compassion and the Filipino modern way of "bayanihan." The Project Mountain Alphabet on behalf of the Colalo Elementary School teachers and pupils would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt "Thank You!" We will pray for your success and more blessings from our Almighty.