Friday, May 20, 2011

RAFI's Educational Advocacy Level-Up

Posted by Kevin Ray N. Chua on 9:14:00 PM 0 comments

The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) launched its comprehensive program for Education during the RAFI Brand Launch for Education last May 3, 2011 at Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu.


The event was participated by DepEd Officials, local government units, academe, corporate individuals, business sectors and other non-governmental organizations. It was intended to present to the public the refreshed brand of RAFI, especially to key education partners and stakeholders. It also highlighted RAFI's new Education plans and directions.

During the launch, RAFI presented their new campaign for the rehabilitation of dilapidated public school buildings in Cebu under RAFI's School Rehabilitation Program.

The program aims to address the pressing gap in physical facilities of mass-based Philippine public education. It covers public elementary schools all over the Province of Cebu. As of this date, the project has repaired and rehabilitated a total of 458 classrooms in 136 schools in 34 town all over the Province of Cebu benefiting over 18,000 learners.

DepEd Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Francisco M. Varela was the keynote speaker during the event. He stressed the importance of the project and also the need to reform the Philippine educational system.

He also discussed the importance of the implementation of the K-12 program to "reform the curriculum to make sure that our youth are given the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience that will make them more productive members of the workforce and superior professionals in their chosen fields."

He also cited the resource requirements of our education system by constructing 100,000 classrooms, hiring of 130,000 teachers, providing 2.7 million school seats, and installing 150,000 water and sanitation facilities.

It was also a great opportunity for me to meet and personally talk with RAFI President Roberto E. Aboitiz. I expressed my willingness to him if ever the organization would need some support in their advocacies. We also talked about how our educational system should move forward to make the teachers not just the owner of information but also the facilitator of content.

With a firm handshake, his words really struck deep within me and saw his visionary attitude that makes him an inspiring person.

To further spread the information on the web and gather online donations, RAFI's School Rehabilitation Program's official website can be visited at www.schoolrehab.rafi.org.ph. You can also donate any amount that would help the organization in this noble advocacy via Paypal, Credit Cards, ATM-Megabank or Online Banking.

I was just happy to know that they accept donations via Paypal since most bloggers have PayPal accounts and some earn from their online activities. It would also be good if our fellow bloggers would donate to this advocacy.

Education is one of the five focus areas of RAFI, which creates a better environment to nurture the love of learning. Other focus areas include Integrated Development, Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Culture & Heritage and Leadership & Citizenship.



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