ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE – The scorching heat of the mid-day sun failed to dampen the spirit of the schoolchildren excitedly waiting for the moment to come.
Thrilled as everyone else at the coastal community, the children lined up straight, raised their flags, and uttered in unison: “Welcome Visitors!”
This was a red-letter day not only for the children of Busicong, a sub-village in Sta. Maria, Siocon town, but also for the members of the Maple Tree Foundation for Mountain Communities (MTF), a Canadian and Philippine-based organization which helps strengthen sustainable development programs of existing mining companies in the area. Busicong, located at the tip of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, is a barangay near the port and warehouse of TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc (TVIRD) in Barangay Sta. Maria.
The MTF has been a generous partner of TVIRD, a copper-zinc mining company operating in Canatuan, the homeland and host community of the Subanon Indigenous People. For the last ten years, the MTF has been taking opportunities to provide depressed areas in Mindanao with assistance in the areas of infrastructure, employment, basic healthcare, peace and order, sustainable development programs, and education.
For two days, Diane James, the Executive Director of the MTF, together with her daughter Megan Fischer, the Director of the MTF-Calgary, toured the communities where their Build A School Program projects were located.
Together with the MTF, TVIRD also partnered with the Petron Foundation, and Habitat for Humanity Philippines in strengthening government peace initiatives through education and livelihood. The Canatuan school building and other school building in Busicong were built for the children of former Muslim rebels and Subanon IPs and Christians in Canatuan.
The Canatuan Elementary School building was built in July 2011 with shares from the four organizations as follows: TVIRD – P375,000; Petron Foundation – P316,666; Maple Tree Foundation – P475,000; and Habitat for Humanity Philippines – P475,000.
“It has been a real teamwork and effort to build this school,” shares Diane James, the Executive Director of MTF. (top) The Canatuan Elementary school. (bottom, from left) Megan Fischer, the Director of the MTF-Calgary, Steve del Mar, the Petron over-all manager for Mindanao, and Diane James.
“The initial seed of the funding of this school started in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in the Mount Royal University Business School. A group of 3rd year business students in leadership class was challenged to raise funds for the MTF. They wanted to raise funds to build schools,” Megan Fischer related how the idea of building schools had started. “At the beginning of the term, they were able to raise a huge amount of money through different creative fund-raising activities.”
What is quite unique about this project is that both schools in both Canatuan and Busicong have the opportunity to be globally-connected to the schools in Canada.
“This school building project helps us study more comfortably. We no longer have to worry about over-crowded classrooms because we have a new classroom building now. Aside from this school building, we are also shuttled by the company’s school bus and provided with desktop computers with internet connection,” explained sixth-grader Eliza Calumpang.
Responsive education is part of TVIRD’s commitment under the Social Development Management Program. Other parts of the Quadrants of Development include Sustainable Livelihood, Health and Sanitation, and Infrastructure. Embedded within each quadrant is capacity-building designed to empower the target beneficiaries to make these projects sustainable.
“We are in partnership for one goal: to provide education. We believe that the future of this locality will depend on how we provide education to the community,” Renne Subido, TVIRD’s Vice-President for Corporate Social Commitment shared.
The Busicong Primary School building is named after Imam Nasaron C. Haron, the generous donor who owned the isolated area in the barangay.
“We just want our children to have a good education. And we see that TVIRD has already established a lot of good projects here,” related Totoh Nasaron during the turn-over of the school building.
Totoh is the son of the late Imam Nasaron and the president of the Parents-Teachers Association in the school. “TVIRD has not just built this school for us, it also provided us with road access, eight water tanks, electrification, and the benching of the slopes around the school,” Totoh Nasaron said further.
The road access built by the Civil Engineering Department led by Engr. Ed Nercuit made the travel by land to Brgy. Sta. Maria easier and faster .TVIRD has already spent P5.2-M since it started the projects in Busicong in September 2011. About P300,000 of the P5.2-M was allocated for the school building and the rest of the development projects in the area.
“We believe that education is one of the ways to improve the children’s lives here,” expressed Petron over-all manager for Mindanao Steve del Mar. Petron contributed P950,000 for the construction of the two-classroom building in Busicong.
“The community has the bigger part in the formation of these children to garner and to accomplish so many things in their lives,” said Habitat for Humanity ComDev Officer for Mindanao Father Al Javier during the ceremony attended by parents, teachers, and the community in general. Habitat for Humanity also shared P950,000 for the project.
“This is a manifestation of TVIRD’s support to the education of the children in Siocon. I could not imagine the development that has been taking place in this very isolated barangay,” related Siocon Mayor Cesar Soriano.
Busicong is 15 minutes away from the Brgy. Sta. Maria by sea and home to hundreds of Muslim Tausugs. Some of the Tausugs are former members of the Moro National Liberation Front.
“We are proud of the school because it represents what we believe in, which is peace through development. We believe in projects that protect the body and train the mind,” Diane James explained to the community.
The MTF allocated P950,000 for this development of which P94,000 was spent to buy armchairs and two teacher tables with chairs. Other projects of the MTF include Food Always in the Home, a sustainable livelihood project; Medical Missions for basic health services; and educational programs.
“We hope that these projects will always continue for the future of our children,” said Engr. Yulo Perez, TVIRD’s Vice President for Operations/COO.
At the end of the day, the school children’s smiles were so bright as their dreams they held. TVIRD, together with its partners in community development, assured them of sustainability especially in the field of education. For once, education is no longer an elusive dream in this most remote area of Zamboanga del Norte.
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