Lumen’s Back-to-School Supplies Drive
Dear Donors,
We are privileged to have partnered with you in our Backto-School Supplies Drive. We could not have done it without your support.
This project was borne out of the exploratory talks within Lumen on possible ways to reach out to children returning back to school in rural areas. Their needs are myriad but the group zeroed in on their basic school needs after a series of consultations with a representative teacher and eventually with the principal of a previously-identified rural school – the Umagos Elementary School in Barangay Umagos, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental. Lagonglong is 57 kilometers away from Cagayan de Oro City and there’s another 2.5 kilometers from the town center to the barangay.
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The School Children
Umagos is a rural barangay with approximately 2,200 residents majority of whom are small farmers and farmworkers. Many of the 380 students currently enrolled in the school live in the sitios. Distance to different sitios varies and the three farthest of these take almost two hours for kids to walk to school traversing rivers and streams. When it rains, which is more often these days, the swollen rivers prevent the kids from going to school. On sunny days, the water is up to their knees.
The distance and the difficult roads are not the main reasons why the kids miss their classes. For 40 or so kids of this school, it is destitution. There’s simply no food to bring to school for lunch.
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The Project At A Glance
Materials
School
for 2 vehicles
on HAND
on Hand good for a minimum of
School Bags
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380 backpacks 380 pairs slippers 803 pieces bread 945 notebooks 594 ballpens 364 pencils 380 pad papers 182 sharpeners 182 erasers 65 boxes crayons TOTAL DONATIONS RECEIVED 148,341.40 EXPENDITURES: 89,967.00 315 Backpacks @P120each 37,800.00 Labor &
for 70 Tarp Bags 4,800.00 Various
Supplies for 380 students. 30,532.00 Slippers 11,010.00 Fuel
to Lagonglong 4,000.00 Miscellaneous Expenses 1,825.00 REMAINING CASH
58,374.40 Cash
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What’s in the backpack?
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A total of P148,341.40 in cash donations were received from 53 donors. This amount was able to fund for 380 backpacks, one for every student in the school. Each backpack was filled with basic school supplies like pencils, pad papers for different grade levels, ballpens, notebooks, erasers and sharpeners. Every backpack also contained one pair of slippers.
A friend of Lumen, Marc Jabay, made a specific request to donate ready-to-eat nutritious bread to be distributed simultaneous with the backpacks.
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Distribution Day in Pictures: October 11, 2022
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Kids queuing for their slippers and bags
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Distinct Project Component: Upcycling of ElectionSolidWaste
The recent 90-day political campaign period generated a lot of information materials on the candidates. These campaign materials were scattered all over the city and tarpaulins comprised the biggest bulk of these solid waste. An opportunity opened up for Lumen to save these waste materials and harness these into reusable items.
This initiative provided for a way to dispose of the used tarpaulins and recycle these into something useful. It also provided increment income toan urban women’s group who sewed the materials and to the end-user, a well-designed school backpacks.
The group approached several campaign organizations but most of their tarpaulins were already given out, except one national candidate. Lumen then approached bagdesigner and founder of Vesti, Martha Rodriguez, to provide the design of the backpacks. The bulk of the used campaign tarpaulins gathered by Lumen generated 70 backpacks. The size of these upcycled backpacks was best suited for
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Kindergarten kids. Out of the 380 bags, 65 were made from upcycled materials and exclusively given to the Kindergarten classes.
OpportunityAwaits
The amount of cash donations received exceeded the targeted number of filled backpacks for distribution in Barangay Umagos. The amount left is good for another 200 filled backpacks. Lumen is presently in exploratory talks with a small rural school to be the next possible conduit to reach out to the children in need.
Thank you, dear donors and supporters. May the smiles of the children who benefitted from your generosity warm your hearts.
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In gratitude, Lumen
18 Lumen Lefttoright:DaisySanJose, DaintyBebak, MilaMalferrari, JulieAng, JeanneOng, AtingEchavez, PennyNicdao, AldaTe-Go
