I remember during my school days, I carried half my weight in school books and notebooks. And wheels or strollers for bags were not allowed in my old school because they do not have any provision for ramps. Everyone carried their own bag, even if you felt your arms are going to fall off any minute. Now, they have Ipads! I dont even own an ipad, I wish I did when I was in school, but these ebook readers can be quite expensive.

If the kids in the US have “Apple Ipads”, here in the Philippines, some students have “banana pads” instead.

From left: Young girl stacks banana leaves in a pile,

Students carry the banana leaves back to school,

young boy in yellow shirt takes some charcoal from their stove,

the charcoal he collects is used to write on the banana leaves

From left: Charcoal and banana leaves  for writing,

A young boy tries his hand at writing on the banana leaf

young boy in yellow shirt is covered in soot from trying to write with the small piece of charcoal

last image shows the teacher’s bulletin board

These are just some of the images from GMA7′s show “Report Card” hosted by Dingdong Dantes and Mike Enriquez which was aired last July 31, 2011. The school is located somewhere in Surigao del Sur. I felt compelled to help these kids.

Up north of the Philippines, children take turns to use these pencils

A whole pencil is broken in two to share with others

The broken end of the pencil is sharpened so the student can use it to write

Better a half pencil than none at all

Just today, I heard a woman drop by the GMA radio station to see Mike Enriquez and she donated 10 notebooks and 11 pencils for the children. Her husband is a welder and didnt know she was going to the radio station. This woman is unemployed and came all the way from Laguna ( a province outside Metro Manila). She also had kids of her own, but they were left in Bicol province (a 10-12 hour bus ride from Manila) with the rest of her family, so she and her husband can find work in the city.

If you have some extra pencils, old school books, pad papers or notebooks or other school supplies (shoes, bags etc) you could spare for these kids, please do send it to Mr. Mike Enriquez at GMA7. or you could send it to the network’s foundation here. or you could send it to me so I can bring it along with me when I go there. I would still need to save up for this and also ask my friends and relatives if they have extra pencils or books they can donate.

I found a short clip from Youtube about the show. It’s in tagalog, but you can just look at the images and see for yourself the real situation of some of the students here.

I know some would blame the local government for this and their corrupt officials, but that wont solve any problem. What we need is to do our part and  send help for these kids. How can a country like ours ever progress if the next generation are kept ignorant?

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