Alfredo Grijalvo, Jr. quickly evacuated his family from their failing home in the rural Bicol Region of the Philippines and into a classroom at the Alejandro T. Manaog Elementary School. They covered the windows, which were all broken, with desks, chairs, and bookshelves as they waited for the typhoon to pass. Several hours later, Alfredo and his family stepped outside. That’s when their hearts sank.

“Most of the classrooms had been damaged, and it was heart-breaking for me and my children,” Alfredo said. “We were saying, ‘How is it going to be for us? How is it going to be for the kids? After all this, where are they going to go to school?’”

All six classrooms were heavily damaged. Roofs were blown away. Some walls had crumbled. Notebooks and workbooks were washed away.

The community did absolutely everything they could to rebuild the school—at least to a state where classes could be held again. But rebuilding morale proved to be much tougher.

Because of the lack of infrastructure and supplies, students started leaving the school to either make a longer trek to a different school or they stopped attending altogether. At the Young Living Foundation, education is part of our mission and we believe it’s a basic human right, yet those who need the education the most—children living in rural and remote areas and living in poverty—are the least likely to attend and complete school because the distance to walk to a school is too far or there’s a lack of infrastructure at the school.

In sum, the sense of pride had gone out of the school and it was replaced by a bleak outlook of the future. Two grades were sharing one classroom. Students were sharing chairs. Teachers found it difficult to teach with all the distractions. School lunch only went to 33 out of the 144 students. No one was coming to help. No one, except for Rosalina Tan.

When she did get an opportunity, though, Yana made the most of it and has become one of the key members of the farm team. A mother of two, she’s highly motivated, meticulous with details, and dedicated. She lives right next door to the farm.

But Yana remembers those days of having little to eat, so she jumped at the opportunity to help the Young Living Foundation give back to the community and country she loves. Yana served as the Foundation’s coordinator on the ground for the school project. Needless to say, this project couldn't have come to fruition without her efforts on the ground.

She coordinated with the Foundation’s program management team to make plans, worked with local construction crews to ensure all repairs to the school were done right and in a timely manner, and helped hire a coordinator to build out a school garden and teach the children and parents how to take care of it. Yana even picked out the colors for the new classrooms.

Yana had us in tears when we asked her what the completion of the school meant to her.

At the Foundation, we believe education is a key to empowerment and long-term change. A strong education can ensure that every student reaches their full potential. It’s a proven path to social mobility, economic gains, and it’s a bridge to more opportunities.

In every country, the main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth. A part of that proper education is ensuring that children have a safe school, one they can be proud about, and one that has the right supplies and provisions. 

Thanks to amazing donors, like you, the world is a little bit better in the Bicol Region of the Philippines.

March 2, 2020