The start of the year was marked by an active Taal Volcano. It erupted on January 12 causing a series of earthquakes and the displacement of thousands of families in Batangas and in the neighboring provinces. Classes and businesses were disrupted, especially around the Taal Lake where the volcano sits.
CANVAS sent 2,000 activity books -- a mix of their titles Message in the Sand (on environment), Karapat-dapat (on children's rights), and Looking for Juan (on culture and identity) to the children in evacuation centers, in partnership with Southern Tagalog's Serve the People Corps that was handling the relief operations in the CALABARZON area. (CALABARZON stands for the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon.) The books were used in psychosocial activites for the children evacuees, a tool with which to process the trauma of displacement.
Through the Serve the People Corps, CANVAS books were part of a relief kit distributed from January 22 to February 15 at Oblates of St. Joseph Seminary in Lipa, Seventh Day Adventist Lipa, Darasa Tanauan, Ibaan, San Pascual, Mabini, Laurel, Sala and Palsara in Balete, and Alitagtag Batangas.
Links:
Links:
Through the initiative of the community involvement arm of First City Providential College (FCPC), forty copies of our Sino Si Juan Activity Book for Children have found a new home in the San Roque Day Care Center's new reading nook.
Although inaugurated last October 2018, the day care center was sparse. "The center only has tables, a blackboard, and some toys," Bunny Fumera-Garcia, Social Orientation and Community Involvement Head (FCPC) told us in May 2019. "I am hoping that through the provision of a mini-library, the love for reading can be inculcated in the hearts and minds of the young learners of the day care center."
The opening program of San Roque Day Care Center in Barangay San Roque, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan was held last June 21, 2019, organized by kindergarden and senior high students of the FCPC.
Along with two workshops for parents and learners of the day care center -- that focused on literacy and confidence-building for young ones -- copies of the Sino Si Juan Activity Book for Children were turned over to the teachers and children, ages 3 to 6.
We hope that this is but the start of a reading nook full of books and ideas for budding readers. Thank you for all your support!
Links:
The National Book Development Board (NBDB) is a government agency tasked with building a culture of reading and authorship in the Philippines, as well as creating an environment for the growth of the book publishing industry to help make it globally competitive.
One of its activities is the "Read Aloud Program", a storytelling activity that aims to help Fiipinos, especially children and out of school youth, to discover joy in reading.
Last March 2019, NBDB, in partnership with CANVAS, brought the Program to disadvantaged communities in Malabon and Navotas City. A separate Read Aloud Program event was also held in April 2019 in Calbayog City in the province of Samar.
In all these events, NBDB gave all the participating children with their very own copies of CANVAS' activity book on children's rights.
On behalf of all the children, we wish to thank all of you again for your continuing support!
Links:
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!
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
