DUMAGUETE CITY -- A total of 22,000 elementary and high school students stand to benefit from a computer literacy project that formally took off here following the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the city government and its partners Wednesday afternoon.
Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo inked the agreement on the project -- that aims to provide computers to the city's public schools -- with the Rotary Club of Park Cities in Dallas, Texas, the Rotary Club of Dumaguete East (RCDE), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of Education (DepEd)-Dumaguete City division.
“As a member of the Rotary Club in Pasay, I know how the Rotary works especially in humanitarian projects,” Remollo said following the MOA signing.
The computer literacy project aims to provide 45 Lenovo computers to each of the public elementary schools and high schools under the Dumaguete City DepEd division.
The signatories to the MOA are the Rotary Club of Park Cities, Dallas, Texas representative Rotarian Bud Naifeh and Don Ramas Uypitching, one of the chartered members of RCDE, Jek Abing of DOST representing the DOST provincial chief Gilbert Arbon, Dr. Evangel Luminarias of DepEd Dumaguete and Remollo.
The project was conceived in 2006 when Naifeh was a US Peace Corps volunteer in Dumaguete and worked on it until 2017, when the new leadership headed by Remollo agreed to become partners in financing the computers with the local RCDE now headed by Clark Labi.
The project will provide computer equipment in all public elementary and high schools in the city through counter-parting between the city government of Dumaguete and Rotary Club of Park Cities in Dallas, Texas, which extended a global grant to RCDE in the amount of USD107,296 or roughly more than PHP5 million.
As a chartered member of RCDE, Uypitching said it is their duty to account for every centavo of the grant, under the MOU between the rotary clubs of Park Cities and RCDE District 3860 Philippines.
Specified in the agreement with Rotary International is the provision of 45 tablets in each of the 18 public elementary schools in Dumaguete, with cost estimates of roughly USD84,240, with 45 headphones and microphones for each of the 18 public elementary schools.
The project will also provide one computer server in each of the 18 public elementary schools, one Wi-Fi router, one desktop switch, one UPS, and other miscellaneous needs.
As director of the program, Uypitching said it is his task to account for every centavo spent for the project including the air travel of Naifeh to make sure the project will go as planned.
All that is stipulated in the agreement will be accounted for and reported to Rotary International.
“Kita nga nagkinahanglan og tabang, atong ipakita nga kasaligan ta, kay kon dili, wala nay usob. Ang gigahin nga kuarta atong gastuhon alang sa katuyoan (We as recipients should show to them that we are trustworthy and that the money is being used as intended),” Uypitching told a press briefing.
The beneficiary schools division, headed by Dr. Evangel Luminarias, thanked DOST, the city government and the Rotary Club for the donation and as the implementing partner.
She said the donation will greatly enhance and augment the existing E-Classroom in all of the 18 public elementary and seven high schools in the city division.
Luminarias said 15,000 public elementary pupils and 7,000 or so senior high school students will benefit from the computerization program.
Turned over to the city DepEd last week by DOST were five computer units, 18 LED 40-inch television sets with seven units of desktop computers for Starbooks, 24 microelectronic kits and six laptops or a total of PHP761,000. (PNA)
