CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – About 150 volunteer workers from SM Malls here and in San Pablo City participated in the annual Laguna leg of the Department of Education (DepEd) “Brigada Eskwela”, a nationwide schools maintenance week project at the onset of the public school opening of classes on Monday.
Karen Christine H. Tiqui, SM City Calamba public relations officer told Philippine News Agency on Thursday that the mall’s schools and community engagements are part of SM’s commitment as strong community partner especially in the “Brigada Eskwela” project slated May 26 to June 2.
Tiqui said that their voluntary assistance to the schools maintenance week, themed “Pagkakaisa Para sa Handa, Ligtas at Matatag na Paaralan Tungo sa Magandang Kinabukasan,” was an occasion to engage education stakeholders and other private sector volunteers, parents and students who contributed their time, efforts and resources in sprucing up public school facilities.
Joining the Brigada Eskwela were the Laguna malls’ teams of volunteers from the operations, human resources, customer relations, engineering, food services, accounting and PR departments and their affiliated agencies.
She said that the mall employees helped repaint, repair and clean school facilities in Palingon Elementary School in Calamba City.
In San Pablo City, Niña Wong, the SM mall public relations manager said the employees really set the day from their mall work and personal time last May 26 in demonstrating their spirit of volunteerism to make the public school classroom spic and span.
The two SM mall PR officers said the mall and SM Cares, a division of the SM Foundation’s corporate social responsibility project, said that their community outreach program, in collaboration with school authorities and the community, symbolizes the spirit of “bayanihan” through public-private undertakings.
“The ‘Brigada’ gives us a picture of people from different sectors of society repainting walls and blackboards, cleaning classrooms, or repairing fences and school facilities,” Tiqui said.
Rada said that their “Brigada” engagement at the Sta. Monica Elementary school in San Pablo City was part of their “adopt-a-school” program in coordination with the DepEd San Pablo schools division.
She said that since five years ago, the SM Foundation had donated two classrooms in Sta. Monica Elementary School, which were allocated to incoming Grade 1 students in the area.
“This is the main reason the SM San Pablo administration employees conducted their volunteerism project there,” Rada said.
She added that as part of the “adopt-a-school” arrangement, the SM Foundation takes care of the upkeep of the classrooms and the SM City San Pablo admin people will sustain the foundation’s advocacy of making public schools clean, safe and conducive to learning.
According to the PR officers, the SM malls’ volunteerism program encourages community service among its employees to support SM Cares programs to work together with communities and organizations that promote positive change.
Among these programs are on various services to people and the community, environmental sustainability, disaster resilience and green campaigns. (Saul Pa-a/PNA)
