Tuesday, June 2, 2009

I Think We Found Our Good Cause...

Jar: 18.08 USD
This year, 22.3 million kids under the age of 16, enrolled in Metro Manila's Public Education system.  Due to the overcrowding of the schools, classes are taken in shifts... in four hour blocks.  Imagine being in kindergarten and going to night school?  

When we went to the Philippines this last January, it killed us to see kids in uniforms, maybe 6 years old carrying their little pan-de-sals (bread rolls) wrapped in napkins, walking in the heat and pollution and riding on whatever they normally rode (a jeep, a bus, a tricycle) for an hour or two in traffic just to get to an overcrowded classroom. 

 The classrooms sometimes have one book for every 8 kids, sometimes only one textbook a classroom.  There is no air conditioning, and a lot of the kids have no bathrooms in their house, so hygiene with the children is not always great.  75 kids sometimes fit into a classroom built for 25.  What really, humbled us was the determination of these kids and the understanding of the importance of education, no matter how horrible the conditions are.  Then I think of our schools here and how we complain about the overcrowding of schools, and how so many kids just don't value it.  

We want to help this cause.  The article brought tears to my eyes. 

But we don't know how at the moment.  

I have emailed the head of the organization in the Philippine Department of Education Adopt-A-School Program, and some contacts we have in the PI.  We will update you as this develops.


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