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Kapuso Foundation gets grant from Japan to build Marawi school building
GMA Kapuso Foundation Inc. has received a grant from the Embassy of Japan to construct a school building in war-torn Marawi City.
Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda and Kapuso Foundation Executive Vice President Rikki O. Escudero-Catibog inked the grant contract at the Embassy on Friday.
Also was present during the signing were officials of local government units that were the recipients of four other grants.
The grants are part of the Japanese government’s efforts of reducing poverty and aiding various communities engaged in grassroots activities through its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects in the Philippines (GGP), which was launched in 1989.
“We thought that the children’s education is the key to the future, the development of this country, and GMA’s project, we thought that would be a very good vehicle to invest in the future,” said Haneda.
“The Philippines is a very important friend of Japan and we want to support the Philippine government’s efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate the city of Marawi,” he added.
Kapuso Foundation’s project aims to construct a three-storey, eight-room school building that will be the learning space of more than 400 students.
Marawi’s Datu Saber Elementary School had been damaged during the five-month siege in 2017. The school had more than 400 students squeezing into six non-standard classrooms, resulting to congestion.
The school construction project will contribute to the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi, and is also part of the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development, or J-BIRD.
It is the third school to be constructed by the Kapuso Foundation in Marawi, but the first three-storey one.
Escudero said that the grant from Japan would be a big help to the project.
“It’s a very big help kasi yung grant na binigay mg Japan tutustusan talaga yung pagagawa ng school. Our first three-storey, small space school building,” said Escudero.
“Yung old school ng Datu Saber, 450 yung mga studyante doon bago mabomba yung Marawi because of the Maute terrorists. So ngayon, magpapatayo ng bagong building, actually eight classrooms yun, and there’s going to be special features,” she added.
There will be a library built into the stairs, two public restroom wings, a vertical garden, and an open space that can be used for gatherings and meals.
More importantly, the building will be made to withstand typhoons, earthquakes, and even bullets.
The design of the school, created by the United Architects of the Philippines, will be donated to the Department of Education’s Marawi City schools division, so they may replicate the school. —JST, GMA News
