Equipping underprivileged youth with chess
Fifteen-year-old
Theodore Abara wanted to provide an alternative form of entertainment for the Filipino youth when he helped establish Knights Build (KBO), a non-profit organization that focuses on making chess accessible to the underprivileged youth in the country.
Abara said KBO aims to teach important life skills that can change the youth’s lives with creativity, patience and perseverance in solving problems and challenges.
“Seeing how chess benefited me, I knew early on I couldn’t keep it for myself, and wanted to share my passion with my community the best way I can,” he said.
Abara was a scholar at Philippine Science High School prior to being awarded the prestigious Vicky Sycip Herrera Scholarship at the International School Manila (ISM) where he is currently in Grade 10. He has previously represented the country, having won several competitions as part of the Philippine Math team.
Seeing how effective chess has been to him, Abara advocates that students should be given access to afterschool activities to hone their skills and talents aside from basic education received within the classrooms.
“There is a lot of untapped potential and KBO aims to slowly bridge this gap and make chess more accessible to the youth. I believe that learning chess can make a genuine difference in their lives and help them become not only great players but strong individuals who can adapt and face challenges,” Abara said.
KBO has world-class and highly-experienced staff, the likes of program head Coach Sonny Labayne who taught ISM’s chess team for over 15 years.
To date, KBO has donated various chess sets, chess clocks, chess books and magazines to the underprivileged communities such as Boystown Manila. It will soon be making donations in Cavite and Marikina.
As a means to sustain its operations, KBO has been helping local farmers by selling locally-produced organic coffee from Baguio, Mushrooms Chips from Bulacan and Tablea from Davao. PLS