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By Lia Manalac

In a country where more than half of the population can’t live a day without texting, and thousands more are Facebook addicts- finding books in the dustbin of Filipino households will surely come as no surprise.

Of course, it will be easy to just give up on encouraging kids to read, when books are not as accessible as the more costly television sets, celphones and internet.

But for retired banker Nina Patawaran, there just can never be any excuse for kids not to read and learn.

The Philippines Dictionary Project

The latter part of 2007 signified the onset of America’s financial crisis. Nina was laid off from her banking job in New York.

But it was amidst this very bad news that Nina found a ray of hope to come back home to the Philippines and start up a project she wanted so long to do.

The Philippines Dictionary Project began with only 2 balikbayan boxes of children’s picture storybooks that Nina donated to the Siliman University Elementary School. Her first donated books were destroyed and pilfered. Nina obviously was disappointed but determined to prove a point.

So coming home in June 2008, Nina went back to Negros Oriental began her advocacy to raise funds for books that would help raise the literacy level of children especially in public schools in the provinces.

It was then that she decided to venture into donating dictionaries.

“I have learned several languages over the course of the years. I figured that if I couldn’t have learned foreign languages efficiently without the aid of good dictionaries, the same would be true with public school children whose parents do not have good command of the English language,” Nina shares.

And the journey she thought would be difficult, proved to be otherwise. The principal of Sagrada Elementary School, also in Negros Oriental, welcomed her initiative with open arms.

“The principal explained that she would like to give up all of the fiction books in exchange for as many children’s English dictionaries as possible,” Nina says.

Nina no longer wasted a single second and worked double time to search for donors. Coming back to the US, she immediately tapped Ayala Foundation USA, which linked her to the local foundation here. She got the support of Scholastic Books,that agreed to publish the Scholastic First Dictionary for her project.

“I was officially the first donor. I then started approaching friends to donate. I had one friend from high school who I thought would donate only 10 books; I was shocked when I heard from Ayala Foundation that my friends check was for 50 dictionaries (or an entire school). To be quite candid, I thought that raising funds for 10 schools or 500 dictionaries would have been an amazing feat. The Albanian janitor at my old employer donated $10, enough to sponsor 1 dictionary and some. The Cuban superintendent of my building donated 1 dictionary, too. Mr. Washington SyCip agreed to sponsor one public school, and even encouraged his son to do the same,” Nina recalls.

By November 2008, Nina launched her project in Negros Oriental with more than a hundred dictionaries covering 28 public schools in all.

P350 for Literacy

Today, other foundations continue to help Nina get more donors for her project. Among those that have continuously supported her are the Ayala Foundation and the PLDT-Smart Foundation. Families and friends have also spread the word about the project.

For a measly amount of only P350 each, one can help raise one more literate child in the Philippines through the Philippines Dictionary Project. Individuals, groups and corporations are encouraged to help in any way, and give any amount they can in support of the cause.

As an added feature, each dictionary bears the name of the donor and if the donor wants to specify a personalized inscription.

To date, the project has already reached other provinces such as Capiz, and will be coming in Davao and Palawan in the coming months.

As proof that the project is working, Siliman University reported that all of the schools that received the dictionaries in November last year have reported an increase in their mean percentage scores. One school’s mean percentage score jumped from 39% to 65% after 5 months with a set of 50 dictionaries.

“This project has been such an exhilarating experience. I’ve met so many people, Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike who all share the dream of helping the Philippines attain a brighter future. Donors can donate in bite-size pieces, or 1 dictionary at a time. Donors like the fact that they do not have to be high net-worth individuals to support this cause,” she happily shares.

Nina Patawaran (founder)– philippinesdictionaryproject@gmail.com and nina.patawaran@gmail.com

Ellinor Ferriol (Scholatic Books)– +632-9005137 or +632-6284487

 

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