The COVID-19 crisis has been changing life around the world as we know it. In March, the Philippine government placed the whole capital, Metro Manila, on lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus. As such, only essential services were allowed to operate. As we now enter July and rules are getting less stringent, more businesses and activities are allowed to resume, yet the threat of COVID is still present.
Despite the lockdown and various challenges, CANVAS is committed to children’s literacy and is happy to reveal and give you a peek at our newest children’s activity book: I am the Storyteller.
Developed in part with support from the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), I am the Storyteller seeks to introduce art literacy to young readers by challenging them to look closely and analyze various images created by contemporary Filipino artists. It asks children to focus on various elements such as color or facial expressions so they can dig deeper into the meaning or message of the images. Furthermore, it prompts children with questions to encourage them to imagine and write their own stories and poems.
We are excited to get these activity books into children’s hands and see what stories they are able to write, where their imagination takes them.
With the funds raised from your donations as well as from other partners, we have ordered 25,000 copies of this creative writing activity book which we hope to give away in the coming months.
Because of the quarantine rules in place, we and most of our partners will find it challenging to distribute the books ourselves. Fortunately, some local governments who have various outreach programs in place are very interested in helping us safely bring the books to children in their respective jurisdictions. We will keep you posted, and rest assured that we will find a way to get it done!
Your generous support allows us to keep doing projects such as these, and we are grateful! We hope you are keeping safe and healthy, wherever in the world you are!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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