Yolanda ruined her school, help build Teresa’s dream

MANILA, Philippines – Dagami South Central School in Leyte was my first playground. It was where I learned a lot of games other than Scrabble: hide and seek, lastiko (rubber bands), holens (marbles), Chinese garter. You name it.

It was also where I first learned to construct sentences from words, and transform paragraphs into dreams.

These fond memories of my childhood in the public school have been replaced by the ruins of Super Typhoon Yolanda that battered Leyte a year ago.

Nearly 3,000 schools were affected by the world’s strongest typhoon in 2013. 

Haunted

Yolanda’s wrath tore apart the roof of my first grade classroom.

The building where I took my second to 6^th grade classes looked haunted after the storm. A whisper by the wind could bring down the temporary ceiling.  

For almost a year, weeds grew on the floor of the abandoned library. Books drenched in mud scattered on the floor.

A huge fallen tree lay on the lawn where I used to play with classmates during recess and after classes in the afternoon. 

Across the playground, a structure was stripped of its walls. Its beams were crumpled like paper.

‘Child-friendly school’

Behind a wall of the destroyed classroom where my mother, a retired teacher, taught third graders, an inviting sign read: “This is a child-friendly school.”

Eight-year-old Maria Teresa Bardillon, a third grade pupil, said she and her classmates no longer feel it is.

They attend class in a temporary classroom built with plywood walls with tarps as roofing.

“Danay nahuhulos an amon blackboards. Danay liwat nagkakahadlok it ak mga classmates,” she narrated when I recently visited our school. (Sometimes, our blackboards get wet. Sometimes my classmates are frightened.)

Raining cats and dogs

“It’s raining cats and dogs” was the first idiom I learned from my teacher in 5^th grade. The mere thought of rain excited me and my classmates then. For us, it meant frolic and laughter.

Rain, thunder, and lightning frighten them now, Bardillon said. The situation becomes scarier if they are inside their makeshift classrooms.

“Baga kami hit natatamaan. Ngan it baha kay makaharadlok naman.” (It feels like we’re struck by lightning. We’re also afraid of the floods.)

A year after the tragedy that affected at least 1.2 million children in the Visayas, only about 300 of the 2,300 needed classrooms have been constructed.

Resilience and optimism

My elementary school taught me to conquer new words and numbers, to stand up when I stumble during games, and to persevere in pursuing my dreams.

Our classrooms then were modest and simple, but they were safe and conducive to learning.

Yolanda took that opportunity I had from Teresa, but not her youthful resilience and optimism.

“Gusto gud namon nga mabalik an amon eskwelahan. Bisan mag-aragmot kami bahala na iton. Para manla iton ha amon.” (We really want our old school back. It’s okay if we will contribute our allowance. It’s for our own good anyway.)

And if generous people will help her and about 700 other pupils in our school rebuild their classrooms? “Maupay (That’s great),” she replied with a shy but hopeful smile. – Rappler.com

Help Yolanda-affected school kids in Dagami, Leyte rebuild their classrooms. You can send cash donations to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC). 

Type of account: SAVINGS
BANCO DE ORO
Branch: Port Area, Manila
Peso: 00453-0018647
Dollar: 10-453-0039482
Swift Code: BNOR PH MM

You can also send donations through Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop nationwide.

For monitoring purposes, please email PRC proof of deposit or transaction at fundgeneration@redcross.org.ph and voltaire.tupaz@rappler.com.

PRC was reported to be the first humanitarian group to distribute relief goods in far-flung Dagami after Yolanda. Visit PRC’s website for other ways you can help its humanitarian efforts.

Tweet or email the author for in-kind donations. He’ll link you up with the school principal. 

For Rappler’s full coverage of the 1st anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), go to this page.