PINK PEPPER
AHON donates books to Guimaras
The turn over of books by Atty Victor
Biaño, Anna Cristina Rojas to Governor
Felipe Hilan Nava, Congresman JC
Rahman Nava and Maura Pit.
Last October 20, Your Pepper went to the Province of Guimaras to witness the turnover of some P4-million worth of books by Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation to some schools.
Anna Cristina Rojas, program officer of AHON Foundation and lecturer of Ateneo de Manila, facilitated the donation.
It was her desire to ride a carabao and search for one that led her to an elementary school, where she talked to the principal and discovered the school's need for textbooks.
Rojas added that AHON'S mission is to bring books and children together. They work with the local community to put up a library and then bring books.
Boxes of books ready for distribution.
The first province that availed of such was Nueva Ecija. It was followed by 18 schools in Luzon. Guimaras is the first recipient outside Luzon.
AHON Foundation, the social arm of Filway Marketing, Inc. is a newly established non- stock, non-profit organization that aims to improve the state of public education in our country by helping build well-equipped and functional public elementary libraries all over the Philippines. Filway Marketing is an exclusive distributor of TimeLife books and reference materials in the country.
Meanwhile, Governor Felipe Hilan Nava said that the books will be distributed in all high schools and elementary schools.
The happy faces of teachers with their
books.
"These books are useful to the students. We are pushing for the putting up of libraries in every school. There are some schools that have functioning libraries and a librarian," said Nava.
The governor also said that apart from the Internet, they push the kids to learn how to read and appreciate reading textbooks as one of their advocacies.
"Our effort has paid off because we topped the NAT examination in Western for two consecutive years," Nava added.
Eugenie Villanueva, a fourth year student of Sta. Teresa National High School was teary eyed when he thanked AHON for the books.
SB Jasmin Gange shows the books.
"We learned so many things because of functional libraries. We do our research and I noticed that most students spend their spare time at the library. It's a precious gift and we will take care of it," she added.
The turnover was witnessed by Congressman JC Rahman Navas, Division School Superintendent of DepEd Guimaras Maura Pait, District Sales Manager of FILWAY Marketing-Iloilo Atty. Victor Biaño, school heads and recipient schools.