Organizing Self-sustaining Community Learning Resource Centers

The primary service of this business is educating the disadvantaged sectors like the children of poor families, school drop-outs and women.

Early childhood education and health care are essential to empower pre-school children to better cope with the preparation for formal schooling. Those who have stopped their schooling need to learn employable skills to bring them into the workforce. The women who are raising their families should be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge and learn more about livelihood skills as well as health practices to better the quality of life of their families.

There is a reserve of retired individuals, professionals including teachers, in the communities who can be urged to move out of retirement and impart their experience and wisdom to these segments of society.

There is mutual benefit for the LGUs, NGOs, the educators and business and industry to develop these population groups into an economically productive force in the community by actively providing material inputs as well as career guidance into their training and education. The LGUs have the financial resources and clout to make idle assets active. The NGOs can organize and mobilize the communities to support this intiative. The educators can provide the learning materials and approaches for the syllabi and curriculum. The local business leaders can identify the manpower and skills requirements as well as offer on-the-job tenures for the trainees.

This undertaking will define and develop the roles, responsibilities, and returns of each in this cooperative endeavor. It will continually search for the application of technology in the delivery of existing or to-be-developed educational services, such as lessons on-the-radio and Internet-based courses.

There will be an added emphasis on relationships and moral values. Learning should not be rote and mechanical. The target audience should be taught how to be sensitive and responsive to the common good, vigilant of their democratic rights, and contribute their talents and skills to nation-building.

Lastly, this business will bring all these various groups, both benefactors and beneficiaries, together in synergy. A scheme will be devised to build a cooperative from among all the players in this endeavor.

We don't see any competitors as all the stakeholders in the locality will become part of the venture.

The beneficiaries will undergo education at very minimal cost, say P5 (less than US$0.10) per school day. These payments will be funneled as their participation in the (multi-purpose) cooperative to be established.

Those directly involved in the delivery of education will be paid allowances as volunteers. They can also become members of the cooperative.

The local government unit is expected to put in its commensurate (the bulk of the funding) share in this effort which empowers the disadvantaged sectors of its constituency as well as the communities. Business and industry can contribute resources, financial and/or non-financial, as the local labor and consumer market conditions will improve with this initiative.

Our public relations/communications group will prepare and carry out a cost-effective tri-media communications campaign in the locality. Our NGO and Church partners will do the social marketing in the target communities.

It is a multi-sectoral service drawing on the potentials of the target audience and the strengths of the contributors. It will unite and energize the community even as it aims to form a cooperative among the educators and the educated. It is a public good enhanced by active community participation

I graduated with an education degree, magna cum laude, from St. Joseph's College in Quezon City. I earned a master's degree in Communication Arts and Social Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and took up courses in child development at the University of the Philippines.

I have been a teacher for 25 years. I co-founded Our School, a center for early childhood education of the ADMU Psychology Department, and established the Live and Learn Preschool in Quezon City. As a past president and founding member of the 20-year old Women in Nation Building, I am a regular resource person for women's rights and issues. In healthcare, I continue to help the poor who are terminally ill at St. Michael's Hospice.

I also trained in speech and drama in London and taught, acted, directed and produced musicals and plays when I returned to the Philippines.

Clearly this plan is to improve on the educational attainment or literacy of the target audience in the community. A core of trainors will be responsible in multiplying the knowledge and skills that they have learned and absorbed in the CLRC so that the more needy they can reach in the neighborhood the better it will be for all.

With the education of children, the youth and the women in the technical and vocational trades, farming and other livelihood ventures, families in the communities will have increased capacity to earn income. More sustainable economic activity is generated by the added inputs accessed by these beneficiaries through the CLRC.

The participation of business and industry in the determination of syllabi and curricula of courses to be offered in these centers creates another core of employable individuals whose capabilities should match with the requirements of their work force.

The formation of the (multi-purpose) cooperative will provide economic benefits to the participants, promote savings, and further the purchasing power of their earned incomes.

Informed and trained women in health, sanitary and nutrition practices will lead to healthier families and eventually a vibrant and healthy nation. The involvement of communities raises its own level of civic-mindedness and volunteerism in activities of the city/municipality/village.

If and when the pilot centers succeed and their impact is significant in terms of sustainability and contribution to national development, then organizing CLRCs will be viable, and cost-effective and therefore, can be replicated throughout the country.