Schools for Schools: Youth Power in Linis Eskwela

Suzette Catalla

It was an extraordinary Saturday for young student-members of Rotaract San Pedro East as they trooped to Malaban Elementary School (MES) in Biñan, Laguna. While most of the teen-agers were in gimmicks, malls and parties, these students opted to share their time with Sagip Kapamilya’s Linis Eskwela volunteers in cleaning public elementary schools devastated by typhoons Ondoy and Santi. Soaked in ankle-deep murky water, MES was used as evacuation center. Classes were not conducted here. Teachers opened their homes and made them as temporary classrooms. Some occupied opened spaces in the barangay.
On the other hand, nursing class has never been the same when Professor Ethel Santos brought her students from Unciano College to Banaba Elementary School in Cainta, Rizal. Instead of the usual white uniform, students came in their casual, “get dirty” clothes, and helped in filling a land-slid part of the school, removing thick mud in the classrooms and disinfecting chairs and tables. For Santos, exposing the students to the “real world” inculcates essential values necessary in nursing profession -- values that they won’t learn in the four corners of their classroom.
ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. continues to help in rebuilding the lives of Filipinos affected by the recent calamities and assists public schools in its rehabilitation. Linis Eskwela is the first step in its desire to normalize situations in schools. Together with professional cleaners Diar’s Assistance Inc., volunteers work hand in hand in scrubbing, dusting, mopping and disinfecting the classrooms. In its 8-week operations, Linis Eskwela has cleaned more than 120 classrooms in Quezon City, Rizal, Bulacan and Laguna affecting 17,361 students and 414 teachers. Aside from the clean-up, schools were also given school supplies and teacher’s kits.