Globe adapts Benguet village for social project

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Around 183 schoolchildren of the Bineng Elementary School and their respective families that located around 1,500 meters above sea level stand to benefit from Globe Telecom's Community of Practice (COP) to showcase the giant telecommunications firm’s social commitment to help fast growing communities design their own sustainable future.

            

Barangay Bineng is the pilot Community of Practice of Globe Bridging Communities and the first recipient of all the five advocacies of the company, particularly focused on governance, excellence in social services delivery, entrepreneurship, environment and sustainability and active citizenship through voluntarism.

            

“We are committed to synergize our initiatives delivered through active partnerships with community-based partners such as local governments, barangay leaders, youth, and the beneficiaries themselves,” Roberto Nazal, head of Globe's corporate social responsibility program, told the media.

               

He said through their community-based projects, Globe can enrich its social commitment to areas where it can make a significant contribution in addressing issues involving the marginalized sectors and also provide opportunities for undeserved Filipino communities so that they too can participate and contribute in the country's competitiveness.

           

 According to him, the program started with the “Roots and Shoots” nursery seedling production of the Cordillera Conservation Trust, partner-beneficiary of Globe in the recently held Globe challenge biking event which generated around P800,000 now being used to establish 20 seedling nurseries provincewide to aid in the reforestation of the Cordillera.

            

Bineng Elementary School was one of the areas for the nursery development project, thus, schoolchildren are being taught the importance of propagating and planting coffee and pine tree seedlings in enhancing the state of the environment and earning livelihood for their families.

            

However, Nazal explained instead of simply focusing on the environment issue, Globe brings to barangay Bineng other important pillars of its comprehensive approach whereby 20 youth leaders from the Ayala Foundation-Globe Telecom Leading Communities volunteered to be part of the nursery building program.

            

Remedios Lamsis, principal of the Benguet Elementary School, expressed her gratitude to Ayala Foundation and Globe Telecom for selecting their school as the beneficiary of the nursery development program since it could be able to produce around 2,000 coffee seedlings and another 2,000 pine tree seedlings ready for sale in the next two years thereby translating to income for the schoolchildren.

            

Going beyond voluntarism, Nazal disclosed the school was also chosen to kick-off Text to Teach in Benguet whereby it illustrates how mobile technology could be used not only to call, text and browse the internet but also to enhance the educational experience of students, particularly in the Grade V and VI levels.

            

Marissa Catangay, program manager of Ayala Foundation's Text to Teach, said Bineng Elementary School was provided with the appropriate mobile technology equipment capable of downloading lessons in Math, Science and Values in order to provide alternative avenues for the children to learn through the mobile classroom which is already recognized and accredited by the Department of Education considering that the modules for the same were prepared by experts from the agency.

            

Globe also provided students, teachers, parents and the community the opportunity to avail of the services of Bank of the Philippine Islands-Globe banko to open mobile bank accounts and gain access to various financial products such as savings, loans, insurance, load purchase and bill payments using only their mobile phones for convenience considering that their place is located around 7 kilometers away from the central business area of the capital town.

            

“Our program will give a chance to test Globe's pillar interventions within a focused geographical area, in this case Bineng, and assess outcome and impact within a period of time,” Nazal stressed, adding that aside from Benguet, Globe is looking at starting the project in other strategic provinces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.