Throwing a party to bring kids back to school in Guiuan

EASTERN SAMAR, Philippines – Guiuan East Central Elementary School is throwing a party every day. The parents and school officials are bringing out cooking stoves, pots, and pans to whip out a feast.

Why? Because many children in the Yolanda-hit town are too hungry to go to school. And, according to a Unicef study, students can’t learn on an empty stomach. 

Out of the 2,053 pupils enrolled, 1,940 are back in classrooms, said school principal Melchor Lacdao. Around 20 are just in their homes.

“Kasi ang iba, nababalitaan namin na iniiwan ng mga magulang sa bahay kasi ang mga magulang maghahanap ng makakain,” she said. (The others, we hear, are left at home by their parents because their parents go out to look for food.)

There aren’t enough relief goods to fulfill the daily nutrition needs of each child, said Lacdao. Families with many children are worse off.

“Pag walang makain ang bata, natural, hindi papasok ‘yan sa paaralan dahil hindi ‘yan matututo dahil ang aalalahanin ang kanilang sikmura,” the school principal said. (If the child has nothing to eat, it’s natural that they won’t go to school because they won’t learn anything if they’re worrying about their empty stomachs.)

The phenomenon has been observed in other schools in Yolanda areas, continued Lacdao. Hunger has become one of the leading causes of absences, he said. 

Throwing a feast

So how do you get students back to school? Apparently, the way to a student’s head is through their stomach.

Humanitarian organization Good Neighbors is giving the school P17 million to throw a party every day.

This is how Lacdao explains the feeding program they are starting on Wednesday, February 12. 

“May pista every recess. Nagdala ang Good Neighbors ng mga lutuan,” he told Rappler. (There is a feast every recess. Good Neighbors brought cooking appliances.)

The idea is for parents to cook food in the school every recess time using cooking appliances provided by Good Neighbors. 

Days before, school officials and parents held a meeting to plan what kinds of meals to prepare. They made sure to strike a balance between healthy food and food that kids enjoy eating. 

Groups of parents will be assigned to each grade level. They will cook the food and serve it to the children themselves.

The “feast” will be held every school day, from Monday to Friday, until April when classes end.

The feeding program is as much addressed to parents as to their children. If parents see that there is food in the school, they are more likely to send their kids to school, explained Lacdao.

Hungry to learn 

Guiuan in Eastern Samar was where Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) first made landfall on November 8. Winds with speeds of more than 300 kilometers per hour reduced school buildings to rubble. (READ: Guiuan after Yolanda: A ‘terrifying’ wasteland)

Classes resumed only last December 2 as teachers and students were given time to repair their homes and piece their lives back together.

Since then, classes are being held in Unicef tents. Children write with donated pencils on donated notebooks which they pick out from royal blue Unicef backpacks.

The feeding program goes hand in hand with the other rehabilitation efforts the school is pursuing. 

Because of the month-long suspension of classes, they have had to move the last day of classes from March to April.

Classes are held in shifts – morning and afternoon – because of the lack of classrooms. But they are not holding weekend classes to enable teachers to fix their damaged homes. 

Amurt, an Indian development group, is constructing a two-story building with 21 classrooms that will be ready in 8 months, said Lacdao. This school building will be typhoon-proof so that it can double as an evacuation center when the next storms come.

And they will come. Just last January, Typhoon Agaton blew away some of their classroom tents. 

But their immediate need remains the reconstruction of permanent school buildings. Their main school hall and classroom buildings were gutted by Yolanda. Blackboards, gaily painted poems about mathematics, and classroom chairs wait exposed to the elements for a roof to cover them.

Despite the herculean task ahead to get his school back up again, Lacdao said he takes inspiration from the students who have continued to go to class. 

“Ang mga bata nakikita ko na talagang interesado na pumasok, so kailangan maging motivated tayo at ipakita natin na kaya nating bumangon,” he said. (I see that the kids are really interested to go to school, so we have to be motivated so we can show them we can rise again.) – Rappler.com