TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Erick Eugenio is a 19-year-old young man from a remote town of Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro.
He left their town early this month in search for a better future for him and his parents who depend on farming for a living.
The second eldest of a brood of six hopes his search would start at the $3-million Technical Education and Skills Authority (Tesda) auto mechanic training center in Tacloban City.
The Isuzu Motors Ltd. Japan funded the facility under the company’s Heart and Smiles project, a corporate social responsibility project that enables the company to share the blessings it received in its 70 years in business.
“We thought we would like to return favor to the society, which long supported Isuzu,” said Yoshinori Ida, chair of Japan-based Isuzu Motors Ltd., during a press conference after the facility’s inauguration last Nov. 17 in Tacloban City.
Ida said his company celebrated its 70th anniversary last April and that the facility was a milestone.
“The (corporate social responsibility) project’s main objective is educational support for children in need of assistance for their growth and development in developing nations,” he said.
Ida further disclosed that the company has initiated similar projects in Indonesia and Vietnam.
The project here in the Philippines is the third of its kind in Asia and the first in the Philippines, said Ida, who flew in from Japan. The company has also funded a project that benefited 8,500 children in Dien Bien Phu province in Vietnam and a support project for six primary schools in Kupang, Indonesia.
“The Tesda Auto Mechanic Training Center is precisely the project that contains everything I want to achieve in Isuzu’s social contribution activity,” Ida emphasized.
The 30 young scholars, composed of 11 girls and 19 boys with ages ranging from 15 to 23, have started training at the Tesda Auto Mechanic Training Center that boasts of a two-story, 1,565-sq.m. workshop, a cafeteria building, a covered court and a 160-bed capacity dormitory.
The scholars enjoy full accommodation, daily meals, and training uniform for free.
“Our parents could not afford to send us all to school because they don’t have any means,” Eugenio said, scribbling on his notebook while being interviewed.
Eugenio was among the 30 young men and women from poor families in six provinces of the country who wanted very much to continue their studies after completing high school but couldn’t do so because of financial constraints.
Their wishes were granted when they qualified for a two-year automotive servicing training program at a Isuzu-funded facility at the Tesda regional complex, an early Christmas gift that could land them on a good paying job as a highly skilled automotive technician.
John Peter Escalante, a 17-year-old native of Barangay Son-ok, Pituyan town in Southern Leyte, located about 185 km from Tacloban City, said he wanted to continue his studies but his parents could not send him to college because they are poor.
“I am very happy (to be among the scholars) because I could continue my studies,” said Escalante, a son of a carpenter and a housewife. He has three younger siblings whom he hoped to send to school in the future.
Marilou Cabarles, a 16-year-old high school graduate from the Serafin C. Rosero Memorial High School, said that in her pursuit for higher education she left behind her jobless mother, farmer stepfather and three younger siblings in Barangay Narangasan, Milagros town in the island-province of Masbate.
“I took the (qualifying) exam. and when I learned that I passed, I grabbed the opportunity,” she said.
Cabarles said she had to take advantage of the scholarship offer because she had no chance of pursuing her studies because her family could no longer afford to send her to school.
More than 1,000 young people from six Plan-covered poor provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Mindoro, Masbate and Camotes Island in Cebu have applied for the Isuzu scholarship program but only 30 of them were accepted.
Michael Joseph Diamond, country director of Plan Philippines, said the applicants have undergone a rigid selection process, which took about one year.
He said the project opens a door to poor but highly deserving students in depressed areas, giving them “hope for a better and brighter future.”
Juan Sabulao Jr., regional director of Tesda in Eastern Visayas, said the scholars have to complete four six-month training courses, from the qualification level of NC 1 (national certification 1) to NC 4.
Sabulao said that the project has been designed in such a way that the scholars have to complete the programs until NC 4. “Even if they are already employable at NC 2, they still have to continue until NC 4,” he stressed.
He disclosed that around P200 million has already been poured into the Tesda Auto Mechanic Training Center, which is a social project of Isuzu.
“This is an opportunity for the people because there is no other facility like this all over the country. This (the training center) is the only one with complete facilities,” Sabulao said.
Jonalyn Navarrosa, 18, president of the first batch of scholars, said the project has given them an opportunity to continue their studies, with a high prospect of finding a decent job once they completed the program.
Navarrosa, a native of Barangay Washington in Catarman, Northern Samar, located about 300 km north of Tacloban City, lost her mother three years ago and her father, who works as caretaker of a poultry farm in their place, could not afford to send her to college.
She said that even if they were women, they could become “globally competitive” automotive technicians in the future.
Fifteen-year-old Aaron Vasquez of Barangay Ilo, Sta. Margarita, Samar, believed that their being in school despite the financial status of their parents was the best gift for them this Christmas season.
Aside from studying on auto mechanics, the scholars would also be taught mathematics and values.
