CitySavings heeds call to help Marawi learners
City Savings Bank (CitySavings) recently turned over 200 school and hygiene kits to the Department of Education (DepEd) at DepEd Complex, Pasig City.
The move was in response to the agency's call for assistance to address the needs of school children who have been displaced from their schools due to the continuing crisis in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.
"Upon learning DepEd's appeal to help the school children of Marawi, hesitation never crossed my mind. Thus, I am so elated for the quick reaction of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) team to provide a donation in our own little way,” said CitySavings president and chief executive officer Catalino Abacan during the turnover ceremony.
Abacan assured that CitySavings will continue to support DepEd in providing basic and quality education services for the public school children.
“We thank CitySavings for being a partner of DepEd since 2008 on various multi-intervention projects. This donation of 200 sets of school supplies and hygiene kits will surely be appreciated by our Marawi learners and will contribute to a semblance of normalcy in their learning environment. We look forward to working on more education-related initiatives with CitySavings particularly on refurbishing learning facilities which were destroyed in the Marawi area as well as other multi-grade level schools in the country," said lawyer Tonisito Umali, DepEd assistant secretary for legislative affairs and partnerships and external linkages.
The school supplies include notebooks, pad papers, ruler, sharpener, glue, scissors and crayons placed inside a plastic envelope, while the hygiene kits include toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo and soap.
To date, there are at least 6,289 displaced learners from 69 public schools in the Marawi area.
DepEd has taken various efforts to tap private organizations and foundations to provide assistance to Marawi school children, teaching and non-teaching personnel in the form of school supplies, medicine kits, first aid kits, hygiene kits, bed mats, raincoats, slippers and halal certified food and beverages as well as materials for temporary learning spaces, such as tents and tarpaulins. /