Olongapo City—SM Foundation continues to promote the valuable contribution of all Filipinos in nation-building, including those who are differently abled.
For its School Building Program, SM Foundation tapped the members of the Foundation for These-Abled Persons to make the teacher’s desk sets and student armchairs.
This strategy gives opportunities to persons with disabilities to be economically self-sufficient while showcasing their great talents and skills.
SM Prime, through SM Foundation, recently turned over a two-story, four-classroom school building to Kalalake Elementary School in Olongapo City, which comes with 200 armchairs—some designed for left-handed students—and four teacher’s desk sets, all of which were products of Foundation of These-Abled Persons.
The school building is also complete with wall fans, concave blackboards, wall clocks, and a restroom inside the room. It also boasts a ramp and a toilet on the ground floor, which makes it accessible to PWDs.
KES now has 10 school buildings – including the SM school building – that will cater to the educational needs of around 2,000 students from Barangays Kalalake, Pag-asa, East Bajakjak, Asinan, and Tapinac. Around 300 of the total student population of KES are learners with special educational needs.
To promote the love for reading to KES students, SM Prime also donated a reading hub with 2,000 books. They also gave 20 computer units for the teachers of KES to help them in integrating multimedia in their teaching strategy.
Gracing the event were Olongapo City Mayor Rolen Paulino, Jr., SM Foundation Executive Director for Education Linda Atayde, SM Investments Corp. Assistant Vice President for Corporate Affairs Victor Chan, and other representatives from the local government unit, Department of Education, and SM group.
SM has been an active partner of DepEd’s Adopt-A-School Program since 2002.
