Send 200 Filipino kids to better daycare centers

No Longer Resembling a Chicken Coop: The Basig Daycare Center 

Among the four public daycare centers of the Daycare Improvement Project, it is the Basig Daycare Center in Sudipen, La Union that needed the most help. Apart from the lack of educational materials, toys, and instructional materials, it needed major building renovations ranging from simple classroom repainting to intricate building wiring so that the daycare center will finally have electricity.

Complicating matters is the daycare center's remote mountainous location. Although accessible by a 4x4 vehicle or a motorcycle, the mountain roads leading to the Basig Community are prone to landslides and due to the effects of 2018's Typhoon Mangkhut, the community roads were closed for repairs for approximately two months. This delayed the delivery of daycare and building repair materials since the community can only be reached by foot while road works were on-going.

Finally on the last week of November 2018, community roads were re-opened and materials were finally delivered to start the rehabilitation of the Basig Daycare Center. The students' parents volunteered their time to improve the daycare center, while the Basig Community Officials pitched in to get a skilled electrician to supervise building wiring. Day in, day out, community volunteers repainted the building, refurbished classroom chairs & tables, installed electrical outlets and lights, and replaced broken roofs, windows and doors, among others. To not disrupt classes, the daycare learners used a classroom in a nearby public elementary school while repair works were on-going.

By the second week of December 2018, the newly-rehabilitated Basig Daycare Center was ready to receive new books, instructional materials, educational toys, students' hygiene kits, and audio-visual equipment. With the help of the Sudipen Municipal Government, HBI delivered all identified needed materials and equipment in time for the re-opening of daycare classes on January 2019.

The support that you, our donors, made possible brought beaming smiles to the daycare's 50 students.The moms are very happy that their children are now studying in a proper and well-equipped daycare center that "no longer looks like a chicken coop or a dark stockroom". According to Mrs. Emma Mostoles of the Sudipen Municipal Social Welfare Office, "the kids and parents of Basig are very happy for the support they received from the GlobalGiving donors. We hope you can help more daycare centers like us in the near future." 

Exceeding Funding Goals Means Reaching More Public Daycare Centers and Students in Need

As we have mentioned in our previous report, the Daycare Improvement Project has already exceeded its initial funding requirement of US$ 5,000 and is now nearing the US$ 7,500 mark in donations. Exceeding funding goals through the support of our donors means that we can now reach more needy public daycare centers and students in the La Union Province.

One of the new daycare centers that the project has supported is the Cabalitocan Daycare Center in Luna, La Union. Through your continued support, the daycare center has been provided with additional instructional and learning materials, while its 30 learners were provided with school supplies and hygiene kits. In the coming months, we are planning on extending support to another daycare center: the Pitpitac Daycare Center in Luna, La Union which has approximately 31 students.  

Apart from monetary donations, the Daycare Improvement Project also recently received gifts in kind from SM North Edsa - a popular local shopping mall. After seeing our website and reading about the Daycare Improvement Project in our GlobalGiving Page, they decided to donate 900 toys that can be distributed to the target daycare centers and to other needy schools and daycares. HBI is going to be distributing these toys in the coming months as well. You will read all about this in our next report!

Our Most Heartfelt Thanks to Our Donors and Advocates

As always, we cannot thank our project's donors and advocates enough for the continued support they have extended to the Daycare Improvement Project. Your help matters to the children and we are going to continue doing our very best work so that we can help and improve more daycare centers in the future.