Balanga City—In time for the opening of school year 2019-2020, SM Prime through SM Foundation has turned over a fully furnished two-story, four-classroom school building to the Balanga Elementary School here.
This is SM Foundation’s 93rd school building donation since 2002 when it became a partner of the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School Program.
According to Juris Soliman, SM Foundation School Building Program Coordinator, the new school building follows the specifications of DepEd like the other school buildings donated by SM’s humanitarian arm.
It is also emergency ready with a staircase on both sides of the building, fire alarm bell, and emergency lights at the landings of both staircases.
The classrooms are provided with 200 armchairs, 20being specially designed for left-handed students. Each classroom has a set of teacher’s table and chair, wall fans, blackboards, toilet and wall clock.
The wall clocks donation is also in support of DepEd’s Project WATCH (We Advocate Time Consciousness and Honesty).
SM’s concern for persons with disability is not only evident in the school buildings that are provided with a ramp for easy access by PWDs and PWD-friendly toilets.
The disabled persons’ pride and self-esteem are boosted as SM commissions the PWDs of the Foundation of These-Abled, Inc. to make the armchairs, the preschool furniture, and the teacher’s table and chair sets.
In support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SM and contractor KHMAYA added two new facilities to the school building: a book corner with shelves and chairs, and a ten-faucet hand-washing facility accessible to all users.
Gracing the turn over ceremonies were School Principal Ameila T. Inieto; OIC, Schools Division Superintendent Carolina S, Violeta; Regional Operations Manager, North SM Supermalls Cesar P. Bondoc; VP-North, SM Supermalls Junias M. Eusebio; SM Supermalls VP Bien Mateo; SMFI Executive Director for Education Linda Atayde; and Balanga Mayor Francis Anthony S. Garcia.
A day before the turnover, SM Retail hosted a book reading session with students from Balanga Elementary, turned over books donated through SM’s Donate a Book Project, turned over computers donated by SM Pampanga.
With 93 school buildings already donated, the SM School Building Program is benefitting 15,000 students throughout the country.
This translates into 300 classrooms equipped with 14,850 armchairs, of which 180 are for left-handed children, along with 594 blackboards, 296 teacher’s desk sets, 1,182 wall fans, 305 washrooms including PWD-friendly toilets.