On March 12 the community of Manggahan and Stairway Foundation, Inc. (SFI) celebrated the opening of a new Education Hub for children and youth.
Sitio Manggahan is an isolated IP community in Brgy. Baclayan, where SFI provides basic services.
This is the third Education Hub established with the support of SFI, after Baclayan Centro (CHEC) and sitio Baloc Baloc.
From now on, the children and youth of Sitio Manggahan will be able to read books, do puzzles, play chess, make Art, play Role Play, and so on in what they have named ‘Pagarawanan Pagadaran’ (Reading and Learning in their local language) Manggahan Center.
Due to the pandemic, students could not attend school for more than two years, and many of them are facing literacy and numeracy problems. And the parents are aware of this.
Inspired by the small grassroots ‘Education Hub’ in Sitio Baloc Baloc established last year, parents of Manggahan asked Stairway for support to establish a similar hub in their community.
A Center where their children can read and browse books, a place where they can play and learn at the same time.
Stairway provides educational materials like books and puzzles and facilitates continuous capacity-building about learning resource center management.
The Hub itself is completely community-based and run.
The parent community formulated a draft of Center guidelines and presented them to the children during the opening for their comments.
Sunday, March 12, around 30 children and 12 parents were present at the opening of the new ‘Pagarawanan Pagadaran’ Learning Hub.
It was a very special festive moment for everyone, especially for the children, who were eager to read and play with all the new materials.