Paknaan teachers chip in to help pupils affected by Oct. 4 floods

| Photo by Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu- Parents visited the gymnasium in Barangay Paknaan in Mandaue City on Friday, October 9, to claim modules for their children’s homeschooling.

To their surprise, they also received relief goods that included a kilo of rice, canned goods, and two packs of instant noodles from the teachers.

Dr. Mary Jean Codiñera, the school principal, said that she and the teachers decided to make individuals contributions that they used to purchase the relief goods for their students who were affected by the flooding on Sunday, October 4, that submerged homes located along the Butuanon River in waist-deep water.

“Tungod na sa among pagmahal sa among kabataan. Although gamay pero kinasing-kasing  gikan namo’ng tanan mga teachers,” Codiñera said.

(We are doing this out of love for our pupils.  This may be a small help but this is heartily given.)

Codiñera said they chose as beneficiaries the students who live at the 6.5 hectare government relocation site in Barangay Paknaan because they were the ones who were badly affected by the flooding.

But since they did not have enough relief goods to give to all of their 600 pupils who reside at the relocation site, they did the distribution on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The teachers were only able to prepare a total of 350 food packs, Codiñera added.

Avedrelda Castro was surprised when she was given the food pack.  She said that she only came to the gymnasium to collect the modules that her children, who are enrolled in Grades 2 and 3, would be using during the second week of classes.

“Pasalamat ta bisan pandemya nakarecover gyapon ta. Makatabang gyud ning relief goods,” Castro said.

(We should be grateful that we are still able to recover amidst the pandemic.  These relief goods are a big help.)/ dcb