The 60 pre-schoolers of the Antipuluan Elementary School in Bago City will no longer have to use musty dilapidated classrooms with roofs about to cave in and rickety desks that could give them splinters.

That is because Aklat Gabay at Aruga Tungo sa Pag-Angat at Pag-asa Foundation, chaired by presidential sister, Pinky Aquino Abellada, turned over a fully furnished two-room preschool building cum library complete with books and learning materials to the Antipulan school yesterday.

Abellada turned over the P700,000 preschool building funded by the San Miguel Corp. to the Antipuluan Elementary School in the morning and another one at the  Crispino V. Ramos Elementary School in Bacolod City  funded by Dr. Vicki  Belo’s Ike and Nena Belo Foundation  in the afternoon, which  were built under the supervision of  the Negrense Volunteers for Change.

The new building at CV Ramos replaces the old leaking preschool building used by 91 pupils. Belo yesterday  also said she will add four ceiling fans for the new CV Ramos preschool classrooms.

Senator Sergio Osmeña, who met with Abellada over lunch,  said he is also committing one two-classroom school building for every town and city in Negros Occidental pattered after the AGAPP model, which he will have constructed in coordination with the Negrense Volunteers for Change.

NVC president Millie Kilayko said Osmeña has also committed to the construction of a halfway house for Suntown Camp’s children with cancer and with parents who have cancer

Abellada said AGAPP raises funds from private donors to build preschool buildings nationwide.

The foundation was born Aug. 1, 2010 and has so far built 25 two-room preschool buildings, which they hope will reach 50 by the birthday of President Benigno Aquino by June 30.

“We have to work harder because we have four-and-a-half months to reach our dream, and we hope to have 1,000 around the country by the end of Noy’s term,” she added.

They chose preschools because statistics show that the highest drop-out rate now is between grade one and three, compared to ten years ago when it was in grade five to six, she said

“I’m told that if kids get through grade one, the parents will struggle to see that they continue to stay in school,  but if   if the kids fail in grade 1 they’ll pull them out,” she said.

Preschools are needed to ensure that pupils have a better foundation to stay in school, she said.

In Cebu, they have detailed studies showing that all those who went to preschool surely passed grade one, she said.

Abellada said her sisters have been helping AGAPP in finding funding for the preschools that they build at very reasonable costs.

Abellada said her sister Kris introduced her to Belo and when they spoke the doctor was eager to help.

Kris also did a commercial for Bench and told them that instead of paying her they could donate a school building through AGAPP, she added. Bench has requested that it be built in Ormoc, Abellada said.

AGAPP is an organization of the classmates of President Aquino, which aims to build preschool classrooms and libraries, dubbed Silid Pangarap, to schools around the country in support of the Aquino administration.

Since their costs for building these school buildings are low, Abellada said she hopes other local groups do similar projects.

Abellada urged the pupils in Bago and Bacolod to study hard, recalling that her father always told them having an education is one thing no one could ever take away from them.

Abellada also thanked Negrenses in behalf of her siblings for loving their father and mother, and now trusting in their brother. “We promise to you that until our death, we will work at repaying all the love you have shown us,” she said.

At the inauguration in Bago City, Abellada was joined by Bago Mayor Ramon Torre, Camille Buenaventura of the San Miguel Foundation, Bago Schools Division Superintendent Milagros Gonzales and Antipuluan Elementary School Principal Dinah Pinky Tañajura.

At the Bacolod inauguration, she was joined by Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, in behalf of Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who was accompanied by Councilors Em Ang, Caesar Distrito and Carl Lopez, Bacolod Schools Superintendent Gemma Ledesma and CV Ramos principal Milagros Macayan.*CPG

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