A Pet Project for Guinayangan

[Loida Guerra Tobias]

Carol Mrazek and I thought of having a pet project last few months ago for Guinayangan. She has a dream of putting up a public library or an Elementary Library and a gymnasium. Sabi ko, hmmm...gym, mahal iyon, wala pa tayong perang malaki. Library, that's doable. Without her knowing, I sent several emails to all school libraries I can find over the internet. There were replies and very good ones at that. Ang hindi namin naisip is how to ship these books to Guinay. Wala kaming way to reach out to Freight or shipping lines. I contacted DHL, Fed-Ex,US Postal. Maraming humps to haul these books. Maraming hinihingi sa amin. Fed-EX needs to use a Foundation to accept our community project. DHL, ubos na raw ang budget nila for free shipping . US Postal, they haven't replied. We are facing a blank wall. Iyan ngayon ang tanong. There are 2 libraries waiting for us to get their books. Sending them is one problem. Can you make a suggestion? Is a library really needed? If it is, how can we send it? You might know someone from the USA who can help us ship these books to the Elementary Library or to the Municipal Hall.

[Luzvie A Milton]

Loida, ate Carol, as you guys know I just returned from the Philippines, I'd been invited over at different PTA meetings kahit wala akong anak na doon, marami nga lang pamangkin at apo sa pamangkin. Shocking and sad to know when I was talking to the Elem. school district that they do not have computer at all! Wala daw kahit isa... So, I told her nalang that I will share the conversations we had to all kababayan na kilala ko abroad baka makatulong din. In short, COMPUTER gusto nila, ito daw kase ang mas kailangan ng mga kabataan ngayon.

[Loida Guerra Tobias]

Good to hear about this feedback, Luzvi. We will see how can we raise money or donation for computers. I have some direct contacts with Dell Computers and Toshiba, dahil ako ang bumibili ng Company purchases from them, baka naman meron silang puedeng i-donate or bilhin natin ng mura. We will see... Sa ating mga kababayan na nasa America, baka meron kayong suggestion, baka puede natin itong pagtulungan... Do you want to join us? Carol and Loida and Luzvi po ang think-tank ng project na ito.

[Luzvie A Milton]

Actually, sabi ko sa kanila mas mabuti ata na pera nalang ang ibigay natin, kaysa sa computer na mangga-galing dito. First of all, iba ang voltage ng electricity doon-220, so pag galing dito computer (usually) kailangan pa nila ng transformer, extensions etc .. so another expenses pa yon, and yet kung mga bata di lahat mababantayan at maiiwasan ang breakdown di ba? I think it would be better if we could just settle cash, then just have someone (trusted) to handle na bumili doon. When we were there nag-canvassed ako sa ilang electronics store/supply sa Lucena City, owned by some taga Guinayangan, and willing naman daw silang magbigay ng discount basta para sa school. Anyway, marami naman doon, a set of computer with printer na ay may 20k pesos. Siguro mas maka kamura sa Manila. It doesn't have to be a name brand computer naman depende sa program to be installed na kailangang magamit ng mga bata. So, what do you guys think?

[Loida Guerra Tobias]

Hello Luzvi. Thanks for your suggestion. While that is really a good idea, konte lang computers ang ma-produce natin kung pera ang ating i-provide. While you might not have read the emails that I did this morning,(I 'bcc'ed you and Gigi) I need to put the updates here for our kababayans to know also. When I read this morning that computers ang kelangan nila, I put my mind into that and sent emails to my contacts from Dell and Toshiba companies. I got replies from Dell but from Toshiba wala pa lang reply. My contact person from Dell gave me the link for Dell's Fountation. But true enough, they do community service but only give support to NGO's and not extended to individuals. Malinaw ang nakalagay sa link: if anybody would like to visit, here is their link for the Foundation :http://www.dell.com/dellfoundation. So in short, nag-thank you na lang ako sa contact person ko and I told him that we will try elsewhere. He replied to me again and told me that if he gets some news about donations and stuffs, I will be the first person to know. I thought, that was the last email from him. But after some few minutes, he has another email telling me that he found some websites that I might be interested in. This one website is very intriguing: www.microsoft.com/philippines/pressroom/july06a.asp . It is about the story of a teacher from Batanes of how Microsoft had helped in providing computers for the whole school and providing training to their teachers! Natuwa akong bigla! This is the missing link, I said. Wala akong sinayang na oras. I sent email the to the Community Affair of Microsoft. Iyan ngayon ang hinihintay natin. Now, Elo, we need your help. Kung kelangan ng Microsoft ang contact person, like the names of the School Principal, can you give me all their names. I am not talking just the Elementary School, kundi pati na rin and High School, plus iyong mga nasa Linang at karatig baryo ng Guinayangan. Kung kaya ng Microsoft ang project na ito, ipila na rin natin sila. Our job here is to expedite communication with the right people and pave the way for this project. I know, malaking project ito for everyone. But sabi nga, we dreamed and we made it work! So, we will keep you posted on this and we hope to have their names and emails,if there is, for quick and fast communication. Their Cell Fones would also be needed, we can send text messages to them if necessary. All of us here are all praying! Microsoft doing their projects in Guinayangan! Sinong aayaw!!! Sana...sana.

[elo]

ok po project na binubuo nyo. kulang nga po talaga computer sa guinayangan elementary school. i know they have just acquired 5 computers through LOAN. kapag nadagdagan po yun, malaking tulong po yun sa kanila. i know they have also solicited donations from diff. agencies but unfortanely walang pong tumutugon so wala po talagang silang ibang choice kundi mag-LOAN. what's good in GES, they have computer literate teachers who can give computer lessons to their pupils.

Although Guinayangan National HiIgh School has about 30 computers with them, i think it's still not enough for their 2000+ students enrolled this school year. The 4 other barangay high schools (in nabangka, dungawan, sta. cruz and aloneros) has no computer also. providing these baragay high schools with at least one computer each would surely help their students acquire at least the basic computer knowledge.

so, just tell me what info and other data u need for your project, and i will help provide them to you.

kudos!!!

[elo]

contact persons:

Guinayangan Elementary School:
Ms. Carmelita Arena, Principal II
[phone]

Guinayangan National High School:
Mrs. Yolanda C. Arena, Principal II
[phone]

GNHS - Sta. Cruz Extension:
Mrs. Aniceta B. Marquez, Teacher-In-Charge
[phone]

Dungawan National HIgh School:
Mrs. Marissa Clanor-Balmes, Teacher-In-Charge
i dont have her contact #

Nabangka National High School:
Mrs. Melba Gonzales, Teacher-In-Charge
contact # not available

[tintin juarez isaacmananghaya]

ate luzvi , as far as i know some of the computer from dell ang voltage ay 110-240 so pwede sa atin kahit walang transformer. i own a dell laptop na pwede sa 220. check nyo rin to make sure. regards....

[Luzvie A Milton]

ganon ba, halos lahat kase computer namin pati notebook ay sony, kahit yong nasa Philippines, kaya connected lahat sa transformer. What about the printer? Sana nga pwede para bawas expenses din yon.

[Cris Avila]

I salute you all for this project. Sana nga po magtulungan kayong lahat na mga kababayan namin na nasa abroad. Panalangin lamang ang maaari naming itulong po sa inyo.

Ako po ay isa ring abang guro at alam ko ang kahalagahan ng aklat at computer units sa mga kabataan.

Sa pamamagitan nito lalong maitataas ang kalidad ng edukasyon sa GES at iba pa pong pulic schools sa GQ. Saksi ako sa kagalingan ng GES sa academics. Hakot awards sila parate sa Campus Journalism Contests, mula Division, regional at national level.

Sana ang school namin mabigyan din ng books. He he. Pwede po ba? Isip din ako ng paraan na makatutulong sa Shipping ng Books. Baka po may suggestions ang mga principals kung pano mapadala sa kanila ang books.

[Jannet Jorvina Vergara]

:) Hi Loida, Luzvie, Carol, Tintin, and to all na nasa USA who might be reading this,
I have a sugguestion, maybe we can put up a non profit organization na ang specific mission is to make a difference in our town Guinayangan. I just dont know where to start but this is possible. I'll talk to one of my classmate in California if he can set this up. Everytime we give donation, it will be tax deductible. I went home last fiesta, I met Luzvie at that time. One of the nuns in school had asked me if I can helped them out in building a restroom for boys and girls. I have not started with my fund raising yet because I got so busy. I have 3 kids and I just graduated with my Master's program so when I come back I went for several job interviews. But anyways, I think this is something that we should worked on. My husband is from Real,Quezon, during the flood last year people from that place has a very organized association here in the US that make it easy to send your donation quickly.
I hope all of us can work together to make it happen.
:)Jannet ( My maiden name is Jorvina and I belong to GA batch '82) :)

[Loida Guerra Tobias]

Jannet, That is really a great idea. We were really thinking of putting up a Foundation, but we don't know where to start. The good thing about having a Foundation also is, when we talk to Organizations like Microsoft, Dell, etc, we will put the NGO/Foundation Number that we put up. That means, the projects would be very easy because it is channeled through a certified IRS member(Si Uncle Sam, very strict!). If in case that your friend can finalize putting up a Foundation for our project, just call our attention if you need something from us. You can reach us via the email addresses that we provided here. And from there, we can finalize and make detail plans! We thank you very much for putting your mind into this project. I know all of our friends here in the USA and in even Guinayangan, will have a bit of hope and a glimmering light at the end of the tunnel! Mabuhay ka, kaibigan!

[Loida GuerraTobias]

Cris, talagang balak namin, may mag-shoulder lang or may makatulong sa shipping ng books natin at nabigyan na ang lahat ng schools in Guinayangan and neighboring towns, we can allocate other books more to the other schools outside of Guinayangan. What I did really last May, 2006 was to send email to all the school libraries here in the USA and ask them if they have old books that they want to donate to Guinayangan Elementary school. So, we have those two schools waiting for us to get the books from, shipping costs nga lang nakabara sa project natin. Although, they didn't tell us how much weight total and how many old books are there, I can ask them that, but then, how can we bring it out from here? that is the question. I know we can still do this project. It's a matter of time. If we have the Foundation put up already, we might ask help from Fed-Ex and other shipping companies.