Businessman and philanthropist Manjinder “James” Kumar recently led a collaborative effort in donating the most complete online schooling assistance benefitting 27 orphans under the care of Children’s Joy Foundation Inc. (CJFI) in Calamba, Laguna.
CJFI was Kumar’s choice as the beneficiary because according to him, these children — being orphans and some abandoned – will not be further left out in this dire predicament of continuing their school year.
Kumar, both in his capacity as President of the Filipino Indian Commerce and Welfare Society Inc. (FICWSI) and of Rotary Club of Makati Nielsen, under the leadership of District 3830 Governor Chacha Camacho, collaborated with his adoptive Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class Sandigan 1994 and the Independent Homeschoolers PH Group (IHPG) to put together a complete package for the donation.
Mr. Sandeep Kumar Talwar and Mr. Rajiv Srivastava, FICWSI Board of Directors, also generously donated a total of P35,000 as aid to the center.
This collaboration manifests the slogan of FICWSI’s outreach program “FilIndiHelpline, Together for a Cause.”
For Kumar, setting up this collaboration to help is their share in filling the need in another challenge brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our intent is not only about giving gadgets because the recipients will still be burdened with other requirements. In our little capacity, the helpline for online schooling will provide complete necessities for the students to receive quality education for one school year,” Kumar says.
Kumar, alongside collaborators, formally turned-over the donation to CJFI. Dubbed as “Helpline For Online Schooling,” the donation is a complete package to assist the students for online schooling for the school year 2020-2021.
The donation package includes upgrades, updates, and function conditioning of existing computers in CJFI, and additional new laptops for use of the students throughout the school year; commissioning of a computer service provider to respond for necessary technical services and computer maintenance; and installation of high speed fiber internet for one year to ensure good connectivity.
All students are enrolled in respective levels to private schools and are registered individually on Quipper, an application that aids homeschooling tutorials and year-level mastery.
Since the students and caregivers are to engage in online schooling for the first time, volunteers from IHPG will regularly visit the site to assist in navigating the digital schooling domain.
Anna Tanquintic, IHPG Founder and Head, said: “We volunteered not just our help to set up, but also our experience, expertise, and guidance to make it easier for the students to navigate online learning throughout the year.”
Despite only 27 students as beneficiaries, the donation package is by far the most complete to cover all necessities to ensure students’ completion of the whole school year, Kumar noted.
Ms. Rizel Espinosa, CJFI Center Head, expressed utmost gratitude and said that the complete online schooling donation package is an answered prayer to their concern for the children’s education for the upcoming school year.
“For the children, more than education, you gave them hope,” she added.
PCol. Nestor Salcedo, President, PNPA Sandigan Class of 1994, cited Jose Rizal’s famous quote, “the youth is the hope for our future,” and inspired the beneficiaries by saying “study hard, we are here to help.”
During the very joyful and heartwarming song and dance presentation of the children, the spirit of charity flowed out furthermore.
PCol. Chito G. Bersaluna, PNP Highway Patrol Group Chief of Staff, started a pledge that led to the whole Sandigan Class present to undertake the refurbishing of the bedrooms in the orphanage.
