Library and Health Clinic for a Lumad School in Southern Mindanao, Philippines

To our dear family and friends,

Our Adopt-a-Lumad-School fundraising effort through Givealittle page has garnered NZ 5,496.12 or (PhP175, 000) to benefit the alternative schools run by the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI) for the indigenous people of Mindanao called lumad. We are thankful for your overwhelming generosity and support in our endeavour to cope with our loss of baby Akara Malaya.

We are happy to report to you that the total amount would cover the construction of a basic building to house the library and the clinic for not only one, but two lumad community schools. Our efforts were very much appreciated by the educators and the school children whom we had the pleasure to meet in the Philippines in May.

We visited the MISFI School located at the edge of the province of Davao Oriental, where a remote lumad community of the Mandaya ethnic group lives. Mandaya, which means “inhabitants of the uplands”, is the largest indigenous group thriving in the rugged topography of Southeast Mindanao. It was a 5-hour drive from the major city airport going to the town proper of Baganga, then another three hours on the back of dirt bikes that travelled off the road up mountain passes, and through two military checkpoints to reach the school in Sitio Mantapay of Barangay Binondo. We were accompanied by two of Luke’s friends in Davao, MISFI Administrator Dadai Sanchez, and three teachers of the school.

Curious smiles greeted our group when we arrived in the near the community, for the last kilometre we walked as it had started to rain and the bikes were getting stuck in the mud.The village is situated on the top of the mountain with a magnificent view of a huge El Niño-affected waterfalls in the background. Before entering the village we could see the biggest building with white painted letters of the school name. Adjacent to the main MISFI classroom and in front of the flag assembly area is the site where the library shall be built. The MISFI School in Sitio Mantapay has been operating in the area for 9 years and now offers schooling up to Grade 5. The school has 106 students as of the end of school year in March, but only 51 were present during our visit because of the summer vacation and obligations to help out in the family. The community has limited sources of income and engages in sustainable agreeable and growing abaca as a supplementary cash crop. They informed us that often they only have kumara to eat. We were told by the community elders that Luke was the first foreigner to visit their community.

The school children welcomed us by reciting their names and their grade level, shyly at first, but warmed up as soon as they giggly coach their friends after another to speak louder. Luke shared to the children's parents his experience with other lumad tribes in Mindanao, which Dadai graciously translated in their mother tongue. Donna facilitated afterwards a short musical game workshop mimicking familiar animals and then introduced the hand puppets. We were rewarded by the children with a passionate rendition of Kaibigan (meaning friend) a song from a popular Filipino singer. Some parents also pledged to train to be their health workers for the school clinic and community.

The three teachers also enjoyed having a go with the hand puppets: Mr Possum and Little Kiwis, Ducks and Birds, and Black Spider. They were delighted to also receive a boxful of colourful textiles, googly eyes and instructional book on how to make hand puppets, which were all generously donated by New Zealand-based The Kiwi Puppet Company. We later learned that they shared the puppets and materials with other MISFI educators during their Teachers' Seminar.

Not too long ago the children of Sitio Mantapay had to walk for an hour to reach the nearest DepEd School and attended at most only three days of classes a week, as school teachers assigned to the public school coming from the lowland towns spent Monday and Fridays travelling. A significant number of the children would drop out of the school mid-year due to, fatigue and insufficient food to sustain those daily trips or not being able to afford fees for schools.

In 2007 MISFI Teacher Bhebing volunteered to be assigned at the Sitio to establish an alternative school for the children. The school provides a free education and a shared daily lunch open to the whole community. MISFI provides all the school supplies and instructional materials that are shared by all the students. The volunteer teaching post has only a Php4000 (NZ$130) living allowance a month, not even half the amount of the wage of the state-run schools, but it did not discourage the other two volunteer teachers Roger and Merriam. MISFI has customised a progressive curriculum that celebrates the ethnic culture of the Mandaya with an objective to produce graduates and educators that will serve the community afterwards. With three dedicated teachers Roger, Merriam, and Bhebing, all of the children of Sitio Mantapay have not been forced to miss a day going to school since.

As our group rode again the muddy and rocky tracks to the town proper, we asked ourselves how we could continue our support for the schools? We thought of illustrated books for the library and financial support for medical supplies. It would be great to bring more school supplies as well. The MISFI teachers are willing to put Mandaya translations above the texts in donated story books. We are looking forward to coming back and bring these stuff, ultimately to having a lasting relationship with the two MISFI Schools in memory of our baby Akara. The transfer of your donation has just been successfully processed and MISFI can now start the construction of the buildings. We will update you with photos once construction is completed. Meanwhile, we are opening now our doors if you have some books or instructional materials (new or pre-loved) willing to donate to furnish our Akara Malaya libraries.

Much love,

Luke and Donna