Rebuilding the second home of dreams
(PADRE BURGOS, Southern Leyte) Many students consider school their ‘second home,’ an institution built to enrich their knowledge and skills, nurture their potential, and prepare them for life. For teachers, it is a place to realize their calling to educate the youth and shape their future. That’s why when the Padre Burgos National Technical Vocational High School (PBNTVHS) sustained damages from the impact of Typhoon Rai (local name: Odette) in 2021, its faculty and students were devastated.
“We did not know it would be that strong. We thought that we prepared enough and secured the classrooms but the typhoon still destroyed all the equipment,” said senior high school teacher Gilbert Quilicot, who aided in assessing the damages in the school while also tending to the needs of his family to bounce back.
PBNTVHS, the only public school in the municipality and technical-vocational school in the first district of Southern Leyte, only had six classrooms in its two-story building. But after Typhoon Rai, the rooms had damaged roofs and two of them were turned into evacuation centers for disaster-affected families. The school administration had to divide over 200 students into morning and afternoon batches so they could fit in one classroom. The students could only go to school once a week.
The destruction happened at a very difficult time when teachers and students were still coping with the challenges of blended learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile signal was intermittent and most of the students had no internet access. Teachers had to print and distribute learning modules to their students' houses.
Teacher Gilbert recalled, “We did not know how to start again. The hardest part was visiting their homes no matter how far just to check if they learned something from our lessons.”
Jamela, an incoming Grade 11 student, said the impact of the disaster was an added burden.
“The typhoon washed out our home,” said Jamela, recalling the painful experience. “I had to self-study due to blended learning. I felt left behind because the teachers could not physically guide me through the lessons. My studies were badly affected because we lost our school materials.”
The school administration created a school repair project proposal and reached out to the local government for support. Former school head Annabelle Gesulga shared, “We constantly coordinated with local organizations and private companies for a year. We were very happy when we finally sealed a partnership with Habitat Philippines.”
Through the funding from Wells Fargo Philippines, in coordination with the Department of Education Region VIII and the local government of Padre Burgos, repairs of the six classrooms commenced in June 2023 under Habitat for Humanity Philippines’ Typhoon Rai Disaster Response Program.
“The roofs were replaced, the walls were repainted, and the comfort rooms were also repaired,” said Gesulga, adding, “We were overjoyed, especially the students, because they are more motivated to study when they have a stable learning environment,” she added.
Habitat Philippines completed the repairs of the classrooms in November 2023, as the school resumed its regular face-to-face classes. Construction of the new classroom began in March 2024 and will be ready in time for the start of the new academic year this August.
Current school head Lio Imboc said that more than 300 students have already used the repaired classrooms. He added, “After what we’ve been through, it truly is a sigh of relief. The classrooms are well-ventilated and it’s not noisy anymore because we have improved walls and ceilings.”
Since the classrooms have been repaired, the school has achieved several feats including winning third runner-up at the school category of the Environmental Summit 2024. The school was commended for promoting sustainability because of the newly rehabilitated facilities and its disaster resiliency.
Jamela and her fellow students also recently won a silver medal in an inter-school quiz bee competition, besting 17 other teams in the province. Sharing how the improved classrooms contributed to their win, she said, “With the repair of our classrooms, we now feel safe, secure, and motivated in our ‘second home.’”
PBNTVHS caters to students from grades 7 to 12 and offers the Humanities and Social Sciences strand. With the addition of a new classroom, the school administration is set to apply for accreditation to offer Technical Vocational Livelihood track including Electrical Installation and Maintenance.
Looking ahead with their second home rebuilt, Imboc expressed, “We are beyond grateful for all the help we have received from Habitat Philippines and their partners. This classroom repair project with Wells Fargo is very important because we know that it will be handed down to new and future generations of learners.”