SURIGAO CITY--Employees of Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) and its subsidiaries pooled together personal resources to gift some 3,000 students of Malimono town in Surigao del Norte with “lapis at papel” (pencil and paper).
The activity, held early last month, was part of the mining company’s yearly Personal Social Responsibility (PSR) program in which NAC employees are encouraged to contribute to their communities as a civic duty.
Last year, NAC employees contributed to give pads of papers and pencils to all 900 elementary students of all the four elementary schools in Dinapigue town, Isabela province.
Lira Poralan, NAC corporate communications manager, underscored the significance of how "the smell of new pads of papers and the feel of new pencils can bring excitement and enthusiasm to any young student".
Poralan said the Malimono recipients, who each received two pads of paper and two pencils, were elementary learners from the town's 16 schools located in 14 barangays.
Kindergarten kids also received coloring books, crayons and sharpeners, she said.
Dr. Alicia Amalia, Department of Education district supervisor of Malimono, said the gift-giving was "a pleasant surprise. The children were very happy, the teachers were almost emotional".
"NAC employees went to all of our elementary schools even in those farthest areas accessible only by bangka and habal-habal. We are all very thankful to NAC employees for the very sweet gesture,” Amalia added.
According to Poralan, the "lapis at papel" contributions were gathered from NAC employees in its mining operations in Caraga Region: Cagdianao Mining, Hinatuan Mining, and Taganito Mining; and also in Rio Tuba in Palawan – Rio Tuba Nickel Mining; in Isabela – Dinapigue Mining; as well as employees of Cordillera Explorations and Emerging Powers Inc.
Jay Ronald Becina, principal at Malimono Central School, said the NAC PSR in Malimono "showed the communities that people from the mining companies of NAC are one with us and are very much part of the very society we live in."
Malimono, a coastal town, is a fifth-class municipality outside the province's mining communities. (PR/PNA)
