Toyota Foundation prepares reading program for adopted school in Santa Rosa, Laguna


A reading program will be part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program of Toyota Motor Philippines Foundation (TMPF) for its adopted school in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

The program will also involve company volunteers who will join the “Read Aloud” program to help children develop good reading habits and increase reading comprehension.

New tables and chairs for the kindergarten room of Pulong Sta. Cruz Elementary School, donated by Toyota (DepEd Tayo Pulong Sta. Cruz ES - Santa Rosa City Facebook page)

According to TMPF Vice President Ronald Gaspar, the reading program is in addition to the ongoing projects that the foundation is supporting in Pulong Sta. Cruz Elementary, its adopted school since 1994.

“Bibilangin pa slow learners na makakasama sa program (We’ll assess how many slow learners

will be part of this program),” he said in an interview with Manila Bulletin last Oct. 24.

Gaspar said “Read-Aloud: will be launched next year.

Meanwhile, it is renovating the kindergarten classroom, and replacing the damaged school furniture.

“Kasi sira-sira so we will make the tables and chairs para conducive doon sa mga kinder (Since

the table and chairs were already damaged, we have to renovate the room to make it conducive

for learning),” he said.

Toyota’s other projects in the school, which stopped during the lockdown restrictions in 2020, are the Gulayan sa Paaralan, Pasiglahin ang Estudyanteng Pinoy (PEP) feeding program, and the Lakbay-Aral field trip program.

The Gulayan sa Paaralan and PEP go hand-in-hand. The former allows children to grow vegetables which are cooked for their meals in the school, or at home.

Toyota Foundation with its Vice President Ronald Gaspar, handing out the sanitation package.
(DepEd Tayo Pulong Sta. Cruz ES - Santa Rosa City Facebook page)

The Lakbay-Aral, on the other hand, rewards honor students and winners of academic contests with a trip to various museums in the Philippines. The program will resume after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) gives its approval.

The foundation has also transformed the school’s teaching system into a digital platform with the installation of television monitors as teaching aid in the classrooms and computer workstations in the library, plus strong internet connection.

Recently, the foundation donated health packs with a temperature scanner, alcohol dispenser and a year’s supply of face masks, soap and disinfectants. (Timothy Gacura)