Help Communities Recover from the Pandemic

      The DLSU Center for Social Concern and Action (COSCA) and the NSTP Formation Office facilitated the implementation of the “CONNECT-ED “ Project by a group of 29 NSTP LT2 students, in collaboration with a Lasallian partner non-government organization (NGO) operating in Quezon City and many areas in the Philippines through initiatives in the areas of education, livelihood, and other programs. “CONNECT-ED,” composed of 5 main projects, namely tutorials, the Facebook learning group, the learning videos and e-games, mental health seminars, and livelihood seminars, supports the programs of the organization that specifically focus on community development, empowerment of families, and the community, support for the education of the youth, supporting the socio-economic activities of the community, and other social services relating to their health, and disaster risk reduction, among others.

      A total of fifty-one community members participated in the activities of the project.  The participants include children and parents who reside in Barangay Holy Spirit, Quezon City.  The partner community is a barangay in Quezon City, Philippines with a population of around 115,000. The project was implemented under the supervision of Mr. Penullar, COSCA’s Sustainable Development Coordinator. The latter shared that one prime factor that contributed to the success of the project was the class’ genuineness to help the community despite having several commitments and responsibilities outside NSTP. The Project is a manifestation of the class’ collective passion to help address the problems identified through a comprehensive assessment of the community’s current situation. The class was able to produce initiatives, such as the learning kits and the tutorial sessions, to aid in the academics of the children in the community. Likewise, sessions covering mental health and livelihood were conducted to help ensure the broad development of both adults and children in the community.

      The team noted that “CONNECT-ED” was carried out well because of the active participation of the students in solving problems encountered during the implementation of Connect-ED. When they were informed by the partner NGO that there was an increase in the number of children that they would teach, hence a possible shortage in the learning kits, the project heads became aware of this, and together, they come up with a resolution to provide the extra learning kits before the tutorial sessions.