Under a canopy tent in a small corner of a community, you will find a cluster of people composed of teachers, students, and school staff. A group of children holding crayons and papers accompanied by their parents gathered to listen to a story, participate in reading and drawing, watch a performance of the band playing songs with significant meanings, and dance to the most hopeful song of the year.

 Our school’s initiative to support local students is called “Kalye Eskwela” (Tagalog for “street schools”), which was held every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday for two months in 2022. Kalye is a Filipino word derived from the Spanish word calle, which means street in English. Eskwela is also a Spanish-derived word meaning school. Combined together they form a meaning of “school in the corner of the street” that aims to provide children with a productive past-time outside their school hours to experience fun learning experiences with all the student-led activities that our program offers such as music performances, storytelling, drawing, and dancing.

We instill values, good character, and virtuous behavior into children by reading them stories that emphasize the importance of courtesy, self-discipline, diligence, and integrity. In order to do this, we ensure that their parents are involved in the discussion as well.

In order to expand the scope of our humanitarian efforts, we partnered with a variety of sponsors and received in-kind donations such as environmental storybooks, towels, T-shirts, and slippers.  After the learning sessions, we provide children with hearty meals such as porridge and bread.

Our visits to the communities led us to see what they lacked in terms of education and quality of life. We were grateful to be able to give them something that they needed and valued, and we saw genuine happiness on their faces when they realized we cared enough to help them.

Our experience has been a learning opportunity as we have developed our personal knowledge and skills while helping to promote environmental awareness. It has shown us that we have the ability to make a difference and that it is important for us to continue working on programs that value sustainability and inclusivity.

by Aiselle C. Bonagua