Update on School

Just a brief update:

We met with the principal of the Bio-os school today. We arrived at the tail end of a meeting he was having with the district superintendent and the director of schools for all of Negros Oriental. That is like the director of Ashland schools and the director for all of Oregon. They and all the staff were pretty happy to see us because the word was out that there might be some help coming.

The principal had a list of items that needed to be replaced or repaired. One item that we felt very strongly about is a stove and gas tank so the school can cook breakfast for the undernourished children. There are 39 children in this program. They are admitted into the breakfast program based on being under a mark that is set on combining age, weight, and height of the child. These are tiny undernourished children. The school district designates the kids, and then provides funds for the food, but there was no way to cook it. Two teachers at the school are assigned to do the cooking (along with their regular duties of course.) The people over this program were so excited about the stove and gas tank. The stove was about $22 and the gas and tank was about $38.

With your help, we have already purchased and delivered writing notebooks, pencils, pens, for the 500 students, and chalk, blackboard erasures and lesson plan notebooks for each class which will cover the students and teachers when the students come back. The first day of school was yesterday but there were only about 20 students who showed up.

The principal hopes that by next Monday they can begin having classes. We are shooting for a cleanup day on Saturday which will consist of community, our church members and the missionaries in this area. We are hoping to have at least 50 – 60 people in all. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and get to work.

The staff at the school wanted us to pass on their heart felt thanks to all those who have contributed. WE ALSO WANTS TO EXPRESS OUR THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED SO FAR! We will be able to cover, with what already has been pledged, much of the immediate clean up and replacement needs

We will send another update after the PTA meeting this Thursday. We will also tell you then about the checks and balances that are in place for proper spending and accounting of the money that will be spent.