BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
CORTES, Bohol, March 17 (PIA) – They
tote their oversized bags, some with rain-ply ready on them, as the pouring
rains after the punishing heat take turns in beating the blue insulated sacks
makeshift roof in their makeshift bamboo classroom.
Children victims of the October 15
earthquake in Bohol have gone back to school, but school is not where they used
to be: dry, cool and relaxing. School after the earthquake is hot, noisy and
has dirt for floors.
The air is stiflingly hot at noon, the
air hangs like laundry left in the sun, and the heat clings to the sweating
bodies, uniforms clinging to bare skin.
Life in this school, months after the
earthquake has its full range of inconvenience spread out for grade 4 pupils of
Cortes Central Elementary School and the rest of the kids in this
institution.
A month after the earthquake, most
classrooms are still in danger of falling and school authorities heeded
building officials’ advice: evacuate the rooms as yet. Make new rooms of light
materials in the school grounds.
And so in school grounds sprout
classrooms: makeshift structures that accommodate 25-30 pupils, safe from the
threat of toppling concrete walls in aftershocks, but open to heat, rain and
noise from passing vehicles.
Few more months, and the Grade 4 pupils
would be inside a room, which a non-profit organization is helping rebuild,
says CCES Principal Amelia Ancog, during a post MOA signing at the school’s
principals’ office Monday.
A Washington based organization Quota
International and its Manila South Chapter offered to help CCES retrofit a
1960’s Marcos type building which the earthquake partly ruined.
Quota, or another word for share, is an
organization into helping children with impaired hearing, children and women in
disadvantaged situation, said Emilie Simon, Quota’s Manila South Club
President.
Simon came with Quota officials Rosa
Fernandez and BIA Barros at the CCES to check on the progress of the P284,000
retrofitting which the organization brought to Bohol.
In its first project in Bohol, Quota
officials said they saw CCES and its problems with disadvantaged pupils from a
CCES alumnae; Stella Garma-Densing, who asked if Quota could help.
The District Engineer’s Office in Bohol
has recommended the immediate repair of the wall ends of the classrooms.
Not really wanting to course the
assistance to local governments due to some reported concerns, Quota used
beneficiary communities to help implement and check the projects instead.
Using funds it raised from its club
projects, solicitations and benefit activities, Quota also tapped local
architect Arvey Michael Lomod to supervise the building retrofit, since they
are all Manila based.
Architect Lomod said the nature of work
includes replacement of two damaged walls, footings and columns, complete
repair of damaged columns through concrete epoxy patching, complete flooring
repair, ceilings and repainting jobs as well as additional ceilings repair in
both Marcos type and Gabaldon buildings.
The project is set for two months, this
should allow the school to use the two newly refurbished classrooms as the year
opens in June, Simon said.
So in June, at least Grade V pupils of
CCES will finally be in their proper rooms, safe from rains or the stifling
heat of the sun. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)