Bringing the joy of reading to children in Pampanga

ABS-CBN Online version of the article

Children must be given the opportunity to learn more beyond the four corners of a classroom, and school libraries are one of the efficient ways that can help facilitate this. The quality of education of public elementary school students are embedded in the kind of facilities and resources that are accessible to them. One of the primary facilities that a school should have is a functional library. However, many public elementary schools still do not have libraries, and those that do have yet to make their libraries child-friendly and functional. Thus, it is no longer surprising that we continue to still have many non-readers in our public schools.

The Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation responds to this need by opening more public elementary school libraries around the Philippines to provide Filipino children with relevant opportunities so they may gain more knowledge by practicing a culture of reading.

Recently, AHON Foundation together with former Pampanga Gov. Eddie “Among Ed” Panlilio and Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, opened two (2) child-friendly libraries in public schools in Pampanga – San Agustin Integrated School in San Fernando and San Juan Nepomuceno Elementary School in Guagua. The whole community, including the local government officials, barangay officers, alumni, PTA members and other stakeholders, attended the inauguration.

Unlike other groups who just donate books, AHON’s main condition for its donating more than P 350,000.00 worth of brand new books per school is for the community to work together to renovate and refurbish its existing library. This would mean providing enough tables, chairs and shelves that children can use as well as providing adequate lighting and ventilation that would make learning conducive for every child.

“Nagpapasalamat po kami na natupad na ang aming hiling na magkaroon ng library itong eskwelahan,” said Mrs. Marie Grace Ramos, Principal of San Agustin Integrated School.

According to Mrs. Leilani Capati, Principal of San Juan Nepomuceno Elementary School, they really want to put up a library but they do not have enough resources.

“Mabuti na lang po at andiyan kayo para tulungan kami sa matagal na naming pinapangarap na library. Makakatulong po talaga ito sa mga bata,” she said. Among Ed Panlilio, the former governor of the Province of Pampanga, stated that, “Kung ‘di lang din sa kooperasiyon niyong lahat, hindi tayo magkakaroon ng library. Congatulations sa inyong lahat!”

On a related note, Sen. Guingona said, “Napakaswerte ninyo dahil mayroon na kayong ganitong kagagandang libro na maaaring magamit sa inyong pag-aaral. Sana ay huwag ninyong sayangin ito dahil ang edukasyon at pagbabasa ay ang susi sa mas magandang kinabukasan para sa inyong lahat.”

Even when libraries are provided, they cannot be functional if the children are not encouraged to enter the library and read the books that are now accessible to them. Mr. Hector O. Tagaysay, Chairman of AHON Foundation, encouraged the children to read the books and promised them that AHON will replace the books if they become worn-out.

To date, AHON Foundation opened 110 public elementary school libraries in different places such as La Union, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Bulacan, Pampanga, Rizal, Leyte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Pangasinan, Laguna, Batangas, Ifugao and Metro Manila benefiting more than 500,000 public elementary pupils. AHON Foundation still believes and continues to work on providing functional and child-friendly libraries in the hope of uplifting the quality of education in the country.

For those who are interested to volunteer or support AHON Foundation, you can send an email to ahonfoundation@gmail.com or call (02) 518-0021.

Despite controversies, legitimate NGOs continue to bring joy to Filipino children

Despite controversies, legitimate NGOs continue to bring joy to Filipino children

Scam. Fraud. Deception. With the very controversial pork barrel issue circulating in the news today, these are just some of the ideas that Filipinos have started to associate NGOs with.

It is sad that a lot of legitimate non-profit organizations, foundations and sincere advocates working in this sector are now experiencing a hard time getting the public’s trust, unlike before. One of these organizations is Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Filway Marketing Inc. AHON Foundation aims to raise the literacy rates in the Philippines by developing newly refurbished public elementary school libraries.

With 93 partner public elementary school libraries, and over 250,000 student beneficiaries, AHON does not stop with just bringing books and children together. It provides free training to the partner schools’ custodians about basic librarianship. And recently, it held a storytelling event in an advance celebration of International Literacy Day

“Literacy is much more than an educational priority – it is the ultimate investment in the future and the first step towards all the new forms of literacy required in the twenty-first century. We wish to see a century where every child is able to read and to use this skill to gain autonomy,” says Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General

Keeping this idealism in mind, AHON Foundation, in partnership with the UNESCO Club of UP Diliman, invited grade 3 students from Ponciano Bernardo Elementary School in the UP Bahay ng Alumni to enjoy an afternoon of learning and fun. Education advocates, friends from Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance & Ethical Leadership, and the Philippine Center for Mass Communication decided to share one Saturday afternoon to volunteer as storytellers, food distributors, registration head, game facilitators, and documenters. Tessa Atentar, the barangay captain of Barangay Kaunlaran, was also kind enough to support this event by providing transportation for the kids to and from the venue.

The program started with the kids introducing themselves, and was followed by stories adopted from the fables of Aesop entitled, "The Greedy Fox," and "The Frog and The Ox." The first story was told by Shy Castillo who, with the use of her exceptional storytelling skills, was able to capture the attention of all the kids and taught them the lesson of greed bringing nothing but trouble to a person. Despite his timid nature and him feeling the pressure caused by the previous storyteller, Kimo Cea, the second storyteller, succeeded in narrating the story seamlessly by just imitating how animated and enthusiastic the previous storyteller was.

After hearing the stories, the kids were asked to use their creativity to invent a story of their own by contributing three words per child. With a 15-minute time limit, the students were able to produce a story of a rabbit looking for her deer friend but ended up meeting an injured squirel and helped him get medication. The students’ vocabulary and grammar were also put to challenge during the second game in which each of them were given a letter. They were divided into two groups, each having their own mentors. The rule was to create three, four, and five letter words, and use them in different sentences. Few, sum, bike, tao, pawis and wagi were some of the words formed during this activity.

Before the kids went home, they munched on the boxes of sweet treats and claimed their free game coupons from the event’s major sponsors, J.Co Donuts & Coffee Philippines, and Timezone. School supplies from the Hero Channel, and the Andres Bonifacio Foundation were distributed to those who recalled the moral of the stories read earlier in that afternoon, and the names of their Ate’s and Kuya’s who were present.

“Sobrang saya po. Gusto ko nga pong bumalik dito eh,” replied by one of the participants when asked if she enjoyed the storytelling.

The volunteers, in return, were given the opportunity to voice out their reasons for joining this cause.

"It's a fulfilling experience knowing that you've widened the kids’ imagination through a simple story," said Cea, the most active AHON volunteer.

“With how political controversies are going, we really should cling to the hope that lies with the next generation. They are worth investing in because soon they'll be taking care of our nation. Seeing their enthusiasm to learn last Saturday made me optimistic. We need more of it especially in light of all the negativity in our political scene,” commented by Danise Macaraya, another AHON Foundation volunteer .

As Harvey Keh, the executive director of AHON Foundation, stated in one of AHON’s library inaugurations, “Maraming mga estudyanteng galing sa public school ang nag-e-excel sa mga colleges at universities.” He is convinced that capitalizing on the aspirations of the 90% of the Filipino children who are studying in the public schools is one of the best ways of alleviating poverty in the country.

A lot of Filipinos may still doubt the intentions of organizations like AHON Foundation, but with the help of groups and individuals who share the same dream with us of a better Philippines, we will continue our pursuit of using the culture of reading and books as a weapon to build more libraries and fight illiteracy. More importantly, help build dreamers of this nation.

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For more information about AHON Foundation, you can visit us at http://facebook.com/ahonfoundation to see what you can contribute to the fulfilling of this dream or you can also contact us at (02) 433-1440 if you would like to be part of our dream of helping every Filipino child learn how to read.

Thank you very much to ABS-CBN News publishing our article on their blog!
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/blogs/opinions/01/31/14/despite-controversies-legitimate-ngos-continue-bring-joy-filipino-children

AHON Foundation and Fully Booked partner for book registry project

AHON Foundation, Inc. Launches 1st Philippine Book Registry for Public Schools

by: Harvey Keh, Executive Director, AHON Foundation

Rowena is a 2nd year high school student at a public school in Metro Manila. At first glance she looks like a typical teenager who is eager to learn new things yet when she is asked to explain the meaning of a magazine article that her teacher asked her to read, she just shrugs her head and honestly tells her teacher that she cannot answer.

Rowena is just one of the hundreds of thousands of high school students in our country who are diagnosed to be "non-readers" or students who can read but have very poor comprehension skills therefore they cannot understand what they have just read. In some cases, public school teachers lament the fact that there are many students who reach high school despite the fact that they have reading comprehension skills equivalent to a Grade 3 student.

This is no longer surprising considering that many of our public schools still do not have enough textbooks and functional libraries that their students can use. When one visits a typical public school library, you will be depressed at seeing that there are very few books available for the students and if there are, most of these books were published in the 1960s and the 1970s.

This is the kind of situation that the AHON (Acts of Hope for the Nation) Foundation hopes to respond to as it launches the 1st ever Philippine Book Registry for Public Schools together with Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street in Global City, Taguig.

AHON Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to improve the state of public education in our country by helping build well-equipped and functional public elementary and high school libraries all over the country.

Since its inception in 2006, AHON has already helped establish 16 libraries in public elementary schools in Marikina, Quezon City, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Pangasinan. These libraries which are developed by harnessing support from different members of the community are currently benefitting more than 25,000 public elementary school students. It aims to respond to the needs of other public schools in areas like Basilan, Saranggani, Agusan del Sur and other provinces.

The book registry entitled, "Turn Bookworms into Beautiful Butterflies" is found at the flagship store of Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Like a bridal registry, any well-meaning individual who hopes to help bring books to public school libraries can visit Fully Booked and select books that are needed by schools from the designated tables in the bookstore for the AHON Foundation Book Registry.

During the launch of the book registry last August 8, Fully Booked Managing Director Jaime Daez said that he is very happy with the partnership since Fully Booked shares in AHON's mission of promoting love for reading among young Filipinos.

As the keynote speaker during the launch, Ateneo de Manila University President and noted mathematician, Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J. shared with the audience his own love affair with books beginning with adventure and fairytale books written in Ilocano, and Marvel comic books too, which he read while growing up in his hometown at Bacnotan, La Union.

Fr. Nebres also stressed that books are important since they allow the youth to open their eyes to new realities and enhance their imagination. He exclaims "books are magical; they open up one's imagination!".

As the launch event drew to a close, AHON Foundation Chairman and Filway Marketing Inc. President, Hector Tagaysay stressed that since majority of Filipinos study in the public schools, there is an urgent need for everyone to work together to help improve our public school system if we want our country to move at the pace of our other Asian neighbors. More importantly, he emphasized that our country's development will not move at the pace of our private schools such as Ateneo, La Salle or Assumption rather it will move at the pace of our public school system.

Aside from Fr. Nebres, other endorsers of the book registry project include well-known talk show host, Boy Abunda and Dr. Lourdes David, Director of Ateneo de Manila's Rizal Library.

For more information about Turn Bookworms into Beautiful Butterflies, you can visit Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street or you can contact Anna Rojas at (02) 683-0262 local 109.

Watch out for the roll out of the book registries in more Fully Booked branches in the coming months.

First Provincial AHON Library Launch

The very first provincial library launch for an adopted libary of AHON Foundation was held last March 10, 2008 in a historic event at the Calaba Elementary School in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.


The Calaba Elementary School, with more than 620 elementary students, will now enjoy over PhP 500 million pesos worth of brand new Time-Life books donated by Filway Marketing thru AHON Foundation, and its partners, A Better Chance Foundation, and Uniworld Inc.



The new Calaba Elementary School library was practically set up in less than 2 weeks through the untiring joint efforts of the local community under the leadership of their Honorable Mayor Sonia R. Lorenzo, the Dep Ed District Supervisor, Mr. Ricardo Badiola; the FPTCA President Kgd. Francis R. Ibanez, barangay captain, other local government officials, the parent-teacher council, and other community members.


The Calaba Elementary School Principal, Mrs. Alona S. Sta. Ines, coordinated this project with the AHON Foundation team, spearheaded by Donna Odra and Val Buenaventura. Mrs. Sta. Ines welcomed the special guests for the occasion with beaming smiles--her happiness resonating that of her community's excitement & gladness at their school's new library.
















Energizing the library launch more with the announcement of additonal support for the community, via a donation of about 200 pairs of eye glasses for those who will need them, was Mr. Lewis A. Edwards, Founder/Chairman of A Better Chance (ABC) Foundation. The mission of his foundation is to provide scholarships for the poor, among many other social development projects. With Mr. Edwards was his team composed of Project Director Hidie Niedo and Coordinator, Maricris Encarnacion. Also present during the festivities were VP for Marketing of Filway Marketing, Inc., Ms. Valerie Valena and Marketing staff, Melanie Renales.

Towards the end of the heartwarming program, Mr. Harveh Keh, Executive Director for AHON Foundation, turned over the books ceremonially to the president of the student council, who represented the excited students, eager to read the books for the very first time.


The eyes of the elementary pupils simply twinkled at the sight of so many colorful and hard-bound books in their new library. The younger kids rushed towards shelves with storybooks about animals and planets, while the older school children moved excitedly towards the reference books on various topics on Science, Social Studies, Reading, etc.



Due to the success of this project, Mayor Sonia Lorenzo and the other principals believe this experience can be replicated with their respective schools in the district. Everyone agreed that there is no greater joy than to see for oneself the wonderful fruits of the bayanihan spirit at work in the community.


Talks are underway for similar projects in the future. With a growing circle of friends and supporters, not only of AHON Foundation, but of the local communities as well, such dreams will not be too far from reality.


The Calaba Elementary School library was the 11th public elementary school library adopted by AHON Foundation in less than two years. The list of the other elementary school (ES) libaries inaugurated since May 2006 is as follows:

1. Industrial Valley ES ( August 8, 2006)


2. Concepcion ES (November 14, 2006)


3. Malanday ES (February 26, 2007)


4. San Roque ES (April 18, 2007)


5. GSIS Village ES (September 13, 2007)


6. Batasan Hills ES (September 20, 2007)


7. San Bartolome ES (September 25, 2007)


8. Lucas Pascual ES (October 4, 2007)


9. Payatas B-Annex ES (December 12, 2007)


10. 15th Avenue, Cubao ES (February 20, 2007)


11. Calaba ES, Nueva Ecija (March 10, 2008)


12. Old Balara ES (March 14, 2008)