In February, CANVAS organized two bookgiving events to benefit children of two groups of indigenous peoples - the Aetas in Tarlac Province, and the Tagbanuas of Coron, Palawan. In both instances, we gave away copies of "Karapat Dapat", our latest and very well received activity book for children focused on the rights of the child. This activity book comes at a particularly good time - 2019 marks the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which also inspired this book.
Last February 23, CANVAS travelled to Coron with the Panta Rhea Foundation, a California-based philantrophic foundation that has long supported CANVAS, to meet with the elders of the Tagbanua Tribe. CANVAS had previously worked with the Tagbanua elders to publish a collection of short stories for children inspired by the traditions and legends of the Tagbanua people.
We took this opportunity to organize a bookgiving event for the children of the Tagbanuas, which is always a happy occasion. But what made this event more meaningful was the agreement by the Tagbanua elders to help us translate our books into their mother dialect so that they can become more relevant and useful to their communities. We hope to begin doing this in the coming few months.
Then, last February 26, CANVAS, in partnership with the Provincial Human Rights Office of Tarlac, and with generous support from the Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corporation (MIESCOR), gave away 220 books to the Aeta children of Sta. Juliana Elementary School in Capas, Tarlac.
On behalf of all the children who benefit from our bookgiving initiatives and events, we again thank you all for your continuing support. We are genuinely humbled by your generosity. Thank you!
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As we close out 2018, we just wanted to share these reports and pictures from three recent bookgiving events.
The first two pictures come from a December 1 event when CANVAS, in partnership with LandBank, gave away 700 books to children in Sitio Loakan, Itogon, Benguet, which is about five hours north of Manila. This was the hardest hit community in the Cordilleras during a supertyphoon last September which caused a landslide in a mining site that killed more than a hundred miners.
CANVAS also donated two sets of our hardbound children’s books for the Loakan Elementary School Library.
The next two pictures were provided by Terence Alombro from "Teach for the Philippines" who gave away our books in Jaro, Iloilo City last November 29, 2018. He also filed this report:
"As we celebrated National Reading Month, we conducted a book-giving activity to teachers and learners of Jaro 1 Elementary School.
The stories were relevant and timely. Stories were integrated in all our lessons which is a good way to explain concepts, example: using the story in the book, we integrate it in English lesson about elements of the story; in science and araling panlipunan, we integrate it, through environmental discussion (Message in the sand) and edukasyon sa pagkakatao; on how we can embrace our individuality as a person (My Big Sister can see Dragons).
One exceptional moment of the activity was involving few parents, all learners and school faculty unite in this reading activity. We are affirmed of the belief it takes a village to educate a child to help our kids love reading, we are empowered to make intentional effort for a collective action from each member of the community to enjoy and love reading."
Finally, Marco Arosa, a Teacher from Consolacion Central School in Cebu City who shared the following report:
"On November 29, 2018, Thursday, Consolacion Central School culminated the celebration of the National Reading Month with a story-telling and book-giving event. In the program, we concluded our reading remedial classes with our grade 6 pupils, where we talked about the learnings that they had during the time we spent with them building their confidence in reading both in Filipino and English. We also took the opportunity to welcome our new set of pupils from Grade 4 and 5, who will be recipients of the remedial program for the next cycle. In total, we were able to give books to 200 pupils from the intermediate level.
During the program, we revisited the importance of them learning how to read where the pupils would always answer chorally, “Para matuto, para makabasa ng English, Science!” After we went over the story, it is nice how one of the pupils mentioned that after our reading remedial program or after he becomes more proficient in reading, he will be the one to read the storybook all by himself."
On behalf of the children, and our partners, we would like to thank all of you again for your generous and continuing support, and wish you all a Blessed Christmas Season!
We look forward to sharing more bookgiving stories and pictures from the field with you in 2019!
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We're very proud of our latest children's book: "Karapat Dapat", an original activity book for children based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children.
We've started giving them away, and one of our partners, The Tiny Library Project, was the first to send us a report from the field.
"The Atis of Panay have long sealed their place in folk history. According to legend, ten Bornean chieftains fled their tyrannical ruler and after days at sea chanced upon an area suitable for settlement in the island of Panay. They purchased it from the Atis, the aboriginal tribe, in exchange for a golden hat and jewelries. This deal became popularly known as the Barter of Panay, a story debunked my some as pure myth; however, the narrative of the town of Hamtic, the site of the first Malay settlement, is never complete without this enduring lore. This is our proud past. Moving fast forward to the present, a surviving community of Atis is found in Tina, or Barangay Gen. Fullon officially, which is approximately a 12-kilometer drive along the highway from the town center of Hamtic. Another two kilometers of dirt road mountainward which is easily accessible by motor vehicles during dry days brings you to the heart of this community.
To facilitate an orderly distribution, students were asked to line up according to grade levels. After receiving their copies, most students immediately opened their books. Majority of them never owned a book prior to this. The teachers appreciated the choice of title granted to them, saying that they do talk about the rights of children in class.
According to our team members assigned to hand the books, the very look on the children’s faces revealed excitement and curiosity while patiently and obediently staying in line under the morning sun. Many were hesitant to drop their books when asked to wave to the camera, wary of letting go of the first book they ever owned in their young lives. Experiences such as this strengthen our resolve to use any means possible to bring reading materials to the hands of children in remote areas in the country.
The United Nations reports that indigenous peoples continue to face serious abuses, violence, forced assimilation, or discrimination. In this light, we consider it a rare privilege to bring to this far-flung community United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) through Karapat Dapat and to fulfill Article 42 which states that adults should help children learn about their rights. In educating this young generation of Atis about their rights, we hope to see an informed and empowered indigenous group. This is the future we wish to shape."
We would like to thank the good folks of the Tiny Library Project for their partnership and assistance in helping to bring our books into the hands of the children who need them most.
And we'd like to thank all of you for your continuing generosity and support which helps to make all these possible.
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This May, we will be launching our latest children's book, "Karapat Dapat" which is a bilingual book (Tagalog and Engish) about the rights of children.
For this project, CANVAS partnered with Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), the Philippines' first and only association of children's book illustrators. Together, we sought inspiration from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to come up with a picture and activity book for very young readers.
We feel that it is a very timely and important book that parents and teachers will appreciate and also find useful. So far, the early response from organizations and companies that we are seeking additional help from has been very positive. So, together with your generous contributions, to date we have enough funds to publish at least 15,000 copies of "Karapat Dapat," all of which will be given children in public schools and disadvantaged communities throughout the country.
Below are some sample pages from the book.
We will keep you posted on our bookgiving activities in the coming months when we begin to distribute these books. But in advance, and on behalf of all the children who are benefitting from your continued generosity, we thank you very very much!
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