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Every month half a million immense cardboard boxes, called ‘Balikbayan Boxes’, arrive in the Philippines. Balikbayan means ‘Coming Home’ and these boxes are packed with clothes, health products, household items, and treats! There is a great art to packing a Balikbayan Box, which defi nitely defi es the laws of physics. I’ve watched many times, as my partner deftly arranges huge mountains of clothing, pots and pans, shoes and chocolates; many times, the size of the cardboard box itself, and using laws akin to that of the Tardis, fi ts all forty or fi fty kilos in. A lovely Filipino chap then visits with his van, on his travels picking up other Balikbayan boxes, and after a couple of months ship journey, it is shared out by my partner’s mother, to whoever needs it, in their little coastal town, Isabel, on the island of Leyte. In January and February this year, we visited the family for the fi rst time since before COVID. While were we out there this year, I was fortunate enough to work in a tiny little primary school in the mountains, Can-Andan Elementary School, which has a total pupil count of 77. The setting is beautiful, the school surrounded by tropical forest, mountain peaks circling, and a view through the valley to the sea far below which stretches its blue arms out to the horizon. Birds fl y around in the trees, coconuts are fetched during break times, drunk from and eaten, and if you look carefully, a tiny little primate, with immense circular eyes, the tarsier, can be spotted. Despite the idyllic surrounding, the funding and resources available to the school are incredibly limited. Simple things of a heavy day of rain, prevents the teachers driving from Isabel by motorbike, as roads become impassable, and as a result, the school does not open. The teachers have made an agreement amongst themselves, despite their very low wage, to each sponsor a child, with materials and clothing, up to and including Year 6. And Year 6 is the problem year, as the pupil numbers dramatically drop, as parents quite often take their children out of education to start working in the farms. I am now a stakeholder in the school, and would like to request you, who are reading this, for some help. I’m not wanting money, but simply to fi ll up a Balikbayan Box with school equipment, any old art materials you may have, half used colouring or exercise books, picture books; in fact, anything that is cluttering up your home, that might be useful to a tiny little primary school in the mountains. You never know, that small item might just encourage a child to stay on to Year 6, and then proceed to secondary school and… well, who knows! Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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