SM Stationery donates school supplies to children
SM Stationery recently donated school supplies to support nongovernment organizations’ education initiatives for children from poor families whose schooling has been impacted by the pandemic.
SM Stationery, the school and office supplies department of The SM Store, teamed up with ChildHope Philippines and Caritas Manila in giving school supplies such as envelopes, notebooks, crayons, rulers, writing pads, ballpoint pens, and pencils to thousands of indigent students and street children nationwide.
ChildHope Philippines has already helped in the distribution of school supplies to poor communities in Marikina and has worked with community and youth leaders to train mothers so that they can teach their kids basic writing, reading, and life skills during the quarantine. Jem Tumbaga, Resource Mobilization and Communications Officer of ChildHope Philippines, said the other school supplies will be used in their EduKit Project and street learning sessions.
Through their EduKit Project, ChildHope is able to provide school supplies to street children in Metro Manila who are either able to attend formal schooling or go to their Basic Literacy and Numeracy sessions in the streets. Their alternative learning sessions will resume once the situation becomes safer.
Upon receiving the school supplies, the children and their families beam with joy, appreciate for the relief that they have received, and hopeful as a new school year, albeit a challenging one, approach.
“By donating essential school supplies, SM Stationery has helped ease the burden for these children and their parents, especially now that we are facing a severe health, education, and economic crisis,” Tumbaga said.
Caritas Manila, the leading social arm of the Archdiocese of Manila, on the other hand, will use the donations to help its scholars, and sell the other donations in their Segunda Mana stores in exchange for cash. The proceeds of the sale will be used to fund its projects to help not just students but also poor families struggling because of COVID-19. The SM Group has been a regular donor to Caritas Manila’s COVID-19 relief efforts and its Youth Service Leadership and Education Program.
SM Stationery’s donations complement the active participation of The SM Group in providing relief to frontliners and communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
SM Stationery, which offers a wide range of school and office supply products, is now open in The SM Store branches nationwide. For more updates on its products and its Call to Deliver service, follow its social media pages @smstationeryph on Facebook and Instagram or join its Viber community by clicking here.
