By Glynnis Grainger
THE Christian Brothers in the Philippines have started a new project to help poor children to help themselves.
Retiree Terry Gee and his wife Mimia visited Santa Clara parish Bentley over 26 and 27 June selling raffle tickets to support this cause.
Raffle prizes include a TV set valued at almost $3,000, a video camera, an outdoor patio gas heater and a video player, for the price of $2 a ticket, or a book of 10 at $20. Mr Gee, 72, told the Bentley congregation after Mass: “Through the provision of basic modern educational facilities to the very disadvantaged schools that the children attend, they are afforded an opportunity for quality education.”
Philippine Edmund Rice Mission (PERM) started in 2006 to help provide funds for this purpose and its fundraising efforts have assisted in the installing of more than 25 computers in each of the 19 Catholic schools in the Kabankalan area.
“This has excited parents and students alike, and has attracted many young people back to school,” Mr Gee said.
In 2009, they focused on library books and a number of Catholic schools in WA supported the project and sent boxes of books due for replacement from their own libraries. Many books have also been purchased in Manila, as these were found to be more suitable for the students than Western-style literature. “Our focus this year is to provide funds mainly for science equipment,” Mr Gee said.
Br Rod Ellyard, who is in charge of the Mission, made a recent review of seven schools which highlighted the extreme poverty of their science departments. He found science equipment is limited in the extreme with mostly homemade models for demonstration purposes, with no experiments, as they have nothing to use.
“It is good to remember that in supporting this project, we are providing facilities for disadvantaged schools that will be available to many more students for years to come. Better facilities mean better education and better opportunities,” said Mr Gee, whose close association with Br Ellyard began as a member of the Pearlshell Prayer Group, with Brs Peter Hardiman, Peter Thrupp, Pat Kelly and Basil Hickey. The first three were chosen to initiate the Brothers’ new venture in the Philippines. The focus of the Prayer Group was Blessed Edmund Rice, the founder of the Christian Brothers.
“Most of the Prayer Group were already involved in other voluntary activities, so my wife Mimia suggested we begin a group that would endeavour to raise much-needed funds to help Br Ellyard in Kabankalan,” he told The Record. “While he focused on improving the quality of the education system, we would endeavour to make a difference through financial support. We are currently moving among the parishes of the Archdiocese to promote awareness of the new work being done by the Brothers, and by means of a big raffle, requesting the help of parishioners through the purchase of raffle tickets.”
Of 405,973 teachers polled in a Philippine government-sponsored survey corroborated from earlier findings of UNESCO and other agencies, 55 per cent said their schools had no access to electricity, while 84 per cent had no running water and only 38 per cent had toilets.
About 25 per cent said they taught in classrooms without ceilings; 45 per cent of them said they brought their own tables to school and 43 per cent brought their own chairs.
Over $111,000 is urgently needed for school computers and cash for library books as well. The Christian Brothers’ Mission has inherited a remarkable legacy from the Columban Fathers who were in the region for more than 60 years.
Br Ellyard said: “We regard the teachers as heroes and, because they have been prepared to work for little return (the wages are pitifully low), the system has survived.”
Donations can be made to the “Christian Brothers’ Overseas Aid Fund”, c/o Br Geoff Seaman, Christian Brothers Residence, 26 Westbrook Way, Girrawheen, WA 6064