“Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world,” states the former President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Awardee, Nelson Mandela. But sometimes in classrooms where education is supposed to thrive, especially in impoverished areas, learning adequately becomes a concern due to the challenges of existing facilities, lack of faculty members, etc. RAROCO Insurance Brokers reached out to Teacher Rayla Allertsen (co-founder and president of I Am SAM Foundation), who was actually the pre-school teacher of RAROCO’S president. She remains to this day as inspiring, charismatic, and absolutely passionate about teaching as she was from decades ago. Teacher Rayla coordinated our visit to Cupang Elementary School Annex, near the West Service Road last November 22, 20224, where she reports some children up to grade 4 still cannot read or and have difficulty in reading.
When learning is fun at an early age, it empowers the children to learn more, especially through reading. That’s why for our company’s CSR this 2024, we aimed to spread the love of learning by reading through these beautiful educational books (Alpabeto ng Kalikasan and Alpabeto ng Kalikasan – activity book) that we have pre-purchased for children aged 4 – 9 years old who may appreciate this. The books were created by Filipino authors, published by an independent local publisher (ANK Publishing), which promotes environmental preservation as well as our Filipino culture and heritage. A total of 50 Alpabeto ng Kalikasan books and activity books combined were donated to Cupang Elementary School Annex.
We also donated 5 sets or a total of 25 books of the I Can Read Series, authored by Teacher Rayla and her mother, Merci Melchor.
Five sets with nine flash card decks to a set or a total of 45 flash card decks were received by the school. The quality Filipino learning decks created by Kislap Talino teaches Filipino and English translations of various subjects simultaneously, such as the English Alphabet and the Alpabetong Filipino, numbers, shapes and colors, weather and planets, feelings, animals, parts of the body, fruits and vegetables and members of the family and parts of the house.
The RAROCO Insurance Brokers, Inc. Team (composed of our VP Admin, HR & Sales, Mr. Erna Santiago, Admin & HR Senior Officer, Mr. Faustino Manahan, Senior Accountant, Ms. Marvelyn Nagaño, Sales Officer, Mr. Amando Bobiles, Non-Medical Claims Officer, Mr. Diuvannie Mabingnay and our President, Ms. Denise Roco – De Leon) was able to interact and provide snacks for all the 98 grade 1 students plus their respective class advisers, along with school faculty and staff at the time of the visit. The children were delighted and happy to see new visitors come and play with them, and teach them how to read as our company president and Teacher Rayla sounded out the letters of the Alpabeto ng Kalikasan and read aloud with animated gestures for the children to remember. We hope and pray that this small activity remains imprinted in the children’s hearts, minds and memories, as they will remain in ours.
