Press Release
Smart continues to support Sendong-affected schools
After providing uninterrupted mobile service, post-disaster free calls, and over P3 million in donations to help survivors of Tropical Storm Sendong rebuild their lives, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) recently turned over additional equipment, school supplies and slippers to affected public school partners in Cagayan de Oro City.
To benefit are some 6,300 students and 245 teachers from seven public high schools and two public elementary schools that are Smart’s partners in the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) and CommuniTeach, two education initiatives under Kabalikat, its corporate social responsibility program.
Smart also turned over life straws or portable water filters to three CDO schools, that are still suffering from a shortage of potable drinking water, after flood-triggered landslides damaged major water distribution lines. Tests conducted by the Department of Science and Technology in Region 10 certified that the filtered water is fit for human consumption.
Dr. Myrna Motoomull, Department of Education Schools Division Superintendent for Cagayan de Oro, received the donation in behalf of the schools.
Smart is helping implement the DLP in the public high schools of Balulang, Iponan, Bulua, Angeles Sisters, Carmen, Bonbon and Puntod. The DLP is an innovative teaching method introduced by 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardees Dr. Christopher Bernido and Dr. Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido that is 70 to 80 percent student activities and only 20 to 30 percent lecture.
The non-traditional approach to learning has proven disaster-resistant, given the lack of reliance on textbooks and the minimal supervision required from teachers, enabling students to resume classes earlier than other non-DLP schools.
The telco is also working with community partners in implementing CommuniTeach at the public elementary schools of Consolacion and Maslog, the latter having been adopted by Smart school partner Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan. CommuniTeach is a program initiated by Smart to improve learning among the lowest performing public elementary school students through the active participation of the parents and the community in the mentoring of their children.
The only network that remained operational during the storm, Smart was also among the first to respond after Sendong struck northern Mindanao and logged in over 1,200 casualties and caused widespread damage to homes and property.
The telco immediately set up Libreng Tawag stations in hard-hit communities in the cities of Cagayan De Oro, Iligan and Dumaguete, joined PLDT and TV 5 in packing and distributing relief packs that included blankets, sleeping mats and bottles of safe drinking water in evacuation centers, and gave billboard tarpaulin materials that could be used as makeshift tents.
(left) Smart Public Affairs Community Partnerships Manager Stephanie Orlino turns over school and office supplies for a total of nine Sendong-affected school partners to (right) Dr. Myrna Motoomull, DepEd Schools Division Superintendent for Cagayan de Oro. Also in photo are (second from left) Rowena Paraon, district supervisor in charge of the Dynamic Learning Program at the Balulang National High School and some of her students. 
(From left) Receiving their life straws from Smart Public Affairs Community Partnerships Manager Stephanie Orlino are Consolacion Elementary School Principal Fe Pimentel, Balulang National High School Principal Minda Rebollido and Balulang Elementary School Principal Anita Gomez. Also in photo is Dr. Myrna Motoomull, DepEd Schools Division Superintendent for Cagayan de Oro.
