ILOILO CITY -- A mobile school project for children-at-risk and Indigenous Peoples (IPs) is set to roll out in this city, through a partnership initiative between the local government unit (LGU) and the PhilSeven Foundation.
PhilSeven Foundation head Israelita Ferrer-Lequin, in an interview on Wednesday, said the project, “Gulong ng Karunungan”, is being established in partnership with City Social Welfare and Development Offices (CSWDOs) of cities, starting in Cebu.
Iloilo City is the first city in Western Visayas and second in Visayas to benefit from the program.
“It’s actually a mobile school that caters primarily to children on the streets. In our second project we would like to tie up with Iloilo City,” she said.
The Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of Philippine Seven Corporation, which has established a number of 7-Eleven stores in Iloilo.
The foundation will donate two vehicles with educational materials. It will also come with feeding supplies, nutritional meals for target children.
“It is very flexible. Whatever is needed by the city, we always try to work with them,” she added.
Merlyn Gison, focal person for child and youth welfare of the Iloilo City Council for the Protection of Children, said the beneficiaries will be “community-based street children roaming around the streets, especially in the thorough areas of the street in the city.”
They will be composed of 300 children-at-risk, particularly those in the pre-school and out-of-school children.
“We will be having mobile day-care center and a mobile ALS (Alternative Learning System). We will be complementing with the CSWDO and the DepEd (Department of Education),” she said.
The CSWDO will provide a mobile day-care worker while they will be asking for an onboard ALS teacher from the DepEd.
She added that they will provide a schedule to cover the entire seven districts. They will gather the children for the study session inside the van and will also be provided with hot meals after.
“Apart from it we will be strengthening the district council for the protection of children so that barangay-based leaders will not rely on the city government officials, instead barangays will also provide activities,” she said.
Gison said that the program will also include a case management component because there are street children who are not from this city.
To ensure the sustainability of the program, the children will be mainstreamed in the educational assistance that is being provided by the Iloilo City Task Force on Street Children.
In addition to street children, Gison said that they will include in the package Indigenous People in the Ati village in Barangay Lanit in Jaro district.
The program will take off as soon as the memorandum of agreement is signed between the city government and the PhilSeven Foundation.
“We are trying to work with Iloilo because this is the second in line within the whole of Visayas. Aside from bringing business, we want to work with the community,” said Lequin. (PNA)
