In keeping with BDO Foundation’s disaster response advocacy, employees of BDO branches in Butuan City volunteered to aid underprivileged students in the city and those displaced by the crisis in Marawi City.
Volunteers from the BDO Butuan-J.C. Aquino Avenue branch and BDO Butuan-Montilla branch distributed packs containing school supplies to around 600 pupils of the Banza Elementary School in Butuan, and as many as 180 students displaced by the armed conflict in Marawi.
“This is something we have been doing every year,” revealed BDO Butuan-J.C. Aquino Avenue branch head Janice Arapan, who led the volunteers with BDO Butuan-Montilla branch head Marty Llorente.
“BDO employees, friends and clients donated funds, which we used to purchase school supplies such as notebooks, pads, pencils and crayons,” Arapan said.
“We distributed these items to hundreds of disadvantaged pupils in Butuan in time for the start of the school year. We also gave school uniforms to students from Marawi,” she added.
At the distribution of the school supplies in calamity-stricken Banza Elementary School, the BDO volunteers also provided food and drinks for the children.
The BDO volunteer program is supported by BDO Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the country’s largest lender.
Backed by local government officials and non-BDO volunteers, these efforts form part of BDO Unibank’s contributions to the Department of Education’s Brigada Eskwela and Oplan Balik Eskwela programs.
In support of these programs, BDO Foundation also donated personal computers to 45 schools all over the country through One Network Bank, the rural bank subsidiary of BDO.
ONB distributed computer sets to schools in Albay, Batangas, Cavite, Guimaras, Ilocos Sur, Iloilo, Isabela, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Vizcaya, Quezon, Quirino and Tarlac.
ONB also turned over PCs to schools in Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Sarangani, South Cotabato, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.