PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur -- The upcycled campaign materials collected after the mid-term polls by volunteers in nearby Dumalinao town and turned into school bags will soon be ready for distribution.
Volunteers of the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) assisted in the cutting of patterns from tarpaulins to bags while members of the Women Empowerment Movement - Rural Improvement Club (WEM-RIC) did the sewing.
Arlene Busa, a WEM-RIC volunteer, said Saturday they expect to produce 154 bags to be distributed next week to students of a public school in Dumalinao.
“These could be a little late but it would still be delivered to a particular school,” Busa said in an interview.
She said they received training in the previous years that include the sewing of different materials, and that they have been participating for years in the production of bags as part of WEM-RIC projects.
Faye Reyes, Check My School coordinator, said her team collaborated with Dumalinao Mayor Junaflor Cerilles after learning of the potentials of upcycling campaign materials into school bags.
Reyes said all the 154 bags will be distributed to a remote school in Midsalip, a town wherein majority of the residents are Subanen, the Indigenous Peoples of the province.
She said Cerilles has assured that recycled school supplies would be included along with the backpacks to be distributed among the school children.
Cerilles noted that upcycling campaign materials would reduce wastes and could be processed for usable materials of good quality.
During the 2016 election, the same WEM-RIC volunteers produced eco-bags out of the campaign tarpaulins and distributed to market customers after Dumalinao’s local government implemented a “no plastic policy”. (PNA)
