This is the initial project of Widus Foundation after announcing its inception on Wednesday at the “Talk Widus” media-forum here organized by the Pampanga Press Club in cooperation with Widus Hotel and Casino. The program is in response to the existing and perennial problems of public schools.
According to Widus AVP for Finance Mitchell Estacio, the “Adopt a Library” under its Balik Eskwela program is geared towards a project that will promote and contribute to quality education.
School supplies will also be distributed to indigent students in time for the school opening, she added.
The container van- libraries are comfortable and safe which cost around P500,000 each, she said.
Among the recipients are the Masamat Elementary School in Mexico town and the Gueco Elementary School in Balibago, Angeles City among others.
In a statement, Widus President and CEO Daesik Han said the back-to-school project is “a collective effort aimed at upholding the education and future of the youth.”
He also said that “since day one, it has always been a dream for us to have our own foundation; a facet that would allow us to have a more committed, efficient and regular medium of help to the community.”
Estacio said “for our foundation’s flagship project, we got in touch with Department of Education to provide us the necessary information of the possible beneficiaries and gathered data revealed that the number of student dropouts increase due to lack of basic school supplies.”
“We hope to continue extending our company virtue of care beyond compare to the community especially to the youth,” she said.
Estacio also expressed the utmost support of both Widus International Inc. (WILI) and Widus Philippines Inc. (WPI) in funding every project of the foundation.
“Our team hopes to encourage and motivate students to go to school and lessen the parents’ expenses in buying school supplies. These may be baby steps on our chosen endeavor but we will study other possible programs on how we can further improve the foundation as we seek to create long term and sustainable programs,” Estacio added.