UE’s ‘Bangketa Teacher’ bags TOP Humanitarian Award

University of the East (UE) student Dara Mae H. Tuazon, dubbed as the ‘‘Bangketa Teacher,’’ recently became the first-ever Humanitarian Award recipient of The One Philippines (TOP) for her focus on teaching streetchildren.

Tuazon won P1.5 million plus a trophy. The awarding was held last May 2 at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City.

Tuazon is an incoming 4th year Bachelor of Elementary Education student of UE Manila, College of Education.

Her mother Amparo is a junior high school teacher and social studies coordinator at the UE Manila Basic Education Department. Her father Joseph works as a project engineer. The Tuazons hail from San Fernando, Pampanga.

During her free time from UE class activities, Dara would purposely go to F. T. Dalupan Sr. Street ( a road beside UE), where she would gather the streetchildren to an unoccupied small space of a street sidewalk and teach them to read and write. She reached out to the children’s parents by conducting good parenting seminar, in coordination with UE Manila’s Guidance and Counseling Office. She also coordinates with UE’s College of Dentistry to give the children free teeth cleaning and check up.

At 19, she is the founding president of the Bangketa Eskwela Foundation Inc.