Building new classrooms with ‘Hope and Care’
EVERY day, thousands of Filipino children still go to school without a proper classroom. Some even have to walk several themselves studying in cramped environments or under the heat of the sun.
According to the Department of Education (DepEd), this academic year welcomed over 27 million students who enrolled from kinder to senior high school. While the number of students steadily increases with each year, tight spaces and a severe lack of classrooms continue to negatively affect both teachers and students, getting in the way of quality education.
The classroom shortage is a real problem and with 88 percent of Filipino children attending public schools, the need for functional classrooms continues to grow.
Aware of the urgent problem, Sanitary Care Products Asia, Inc. (SCPA) makers of Sanicare personal care and paper products, has included addressing this problem in their mission to improve the lives of Filipinos as best they can.
For several years now, the company has been an active supporter of the DepEd Brigada Eskwela by engaging its employees every back-to-school season to help refurbish and clean classrooms and other facilities like washrooms, faculty rooms, library, canteen, and the school grounds. In addition to the cleanup, Sanicare also provides hygiene kits that include tissue papers, cleansing wipes, and toilet seat covers to partner schools to further educate students about the importance of proper hygiene.
Last 2017, Sanicare likewise collaborated with Alex Eduque to design special limited- edition facial tissue boxes to support Molding Optimism and Values Through Education (MovEd), an organization that aims to give every Filipino child quality early childhood education.
This year, the company takes on a new advocacy as it partners anew with DepEd and HOPE to create more classrooms. HOPE is the first Philippine company to donate 100 percent of its classrooms. Through Hope in a Bottle and its partnerships with brands and retailers, they have built numerous classrooms across the country, positively impacting over 14,000 students. group are building two classrooms in Lagao 2nd Bo. Elementary School, located in General Santos City, South Cotabato.
“We at Sanicare value education and its powerful impact on our youth, that’s why we are constantly searching for innovative and creative ways to help with our country’s pressing problems. Just as we believe that every Filipino deserves access to high quality and innovative hygiene products, we also believe that every student deserves the right to a safe, comfortable and conducive learning environment like the Sanicare Hope classrooms we aspire to build. And hopefully with everyone’s continued support to Sanicare, we can contribute more to this worthwhile endeavor,” says Lea Sio-Pacis, SCPA Marketing Director.
For her part, Nanette Medved Po, CEO of HOPE relates, “We believe the best long term investment we can make for this country is towards the education of its children. Together with partners who also believe in Business for Good, we give consumers the chance to effect social change by voting with their peso – one purchase at a time.”