USAID breaks ground for P21-M school building project in Tacloban City

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 9): USAID breaks ground for P21-M school building project in Tacloban City

The United States government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday broke ground for the USD21-million school building project at the San Fernando Central School, one of the badly affected education facilities of typhoon Yolanda in this city.

The project that involves the construction of disaster-resilient eight-classroom building is part of the education component of the Rebuild Program that was launched Monday afternoon in Tacloban City.

The launching was led by USAID acting assistant administrator for Asia Denise Rollins and joined by USAID Philippines mission director Gloria D. Steele.

The education component targets to build and furnish 165 classrooms and provide teaching kits to respond to the need for permanent buildings in areas ravaged by Yolanda.

Meanwhile, presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery, Secretary Panfilo Lacson said that the event is a “mere representative of one of the projects the US government through USAID has embarked on.”

“What you have done, what you have continued to do to the survivors of the strongest typhoon that hit landfall here in central Philippines, we will continue to appreciate and recognize. We will never forget what you’re doing, what you have done,” Lacson said.

Department of Education (DepEd) regional director Rosalinda B. Yu said that the support extended by the USAID and other donors will further inspire students to “come to school every day and stay here until the school year ends.”

”This groundbreaking ceremony is another milestone in the recovery effort after the super typhoon. This will mean that close to 500 pupils will be transferred from the cramped classroom that they are using now to the new building soon to be constructed,” she said.

She mentioned that more than 1,100 schools from Eastern Visayas were devastated by typhoon Yolanda composed of 134 secondary and 956 elementary schools.

Citing the assessment done by the Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering Division of the DepEd central office, 8,950 classrooms were damaged, with 1,753 needed to be replaced and 7,197 to be repaired.

The construction cost of new classrooms was estimated at P1.3 billion while repair is at P2.2 billion.

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