2009 promises to be an exciting and challenging year for One Small Step Forward Foundation!
At the top of the list is the promised roll-out of the iSipnayan Math Program at a major school. (Please refer to the article on iSipnayan on page 4). Among the candidates are San Vicente Elementary School near UP (population of 3,500), Balara, Old Balara, Cubao, Quirino, and Pinyahan Elementary Schools. I will conduct discussions in the January-March 2009 timeframe with the principals and assistant superintendents of the candidate schools before making the final selection. I will look for school leadership that recognizes major issues with their math competence, appreciates the value of such an after-school program, and is willing to move faculty and PTA resources behind the program. The selected school will be “prepped” during the summer break and the program can hopefully start in June 2009. If we have additional capacity, we may be able to roll-out the program to additional small schools later in the same school year.

In 2009, the Foundation will need to pick up full-time administrative and project staff. Heretofore, I’ve managed to make do with several part-time workers and volunteers and with the directors pitching in occasionally. But with iSipnayan projected to officially launch in a ”big” school and possibly a few smaller schools, this will stretch my capability to be in many sites at once, hence the need to bring smart, idealistic full-time project and operations staff on board. In addition, I suspect that we may be approached by one or two corporations who would like to involve their people in short-time volunteer work. Assigning volunteers to short-time work is a major management challenge and will require strong project staff to effectively assign volunteers to “work units”.

Although Accenture Philippines finally discontinued its support for the Kumon Math program and Operation: Sagip at Sto. Cristo Elementary School after a two-year run, Country Lead Beth Lui and CSR Senior Executive in-charge Nescel Asuncion facilitated the discussion with Accenture Australia Foundation (AAF) for possible sponsorship of the iSipnayan roll-out. AAF was looking for a major project in 2008-2009 and they were seriously considering iSipnayan. I was in several discussions with Accenture Australia Foundation’s Executive Director Robert Hohnen, starting in November 2007. However, talks ceased in June 2008. I hope AAF has still not lost interest in the project and that they continue to keep us at top of mind. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The plan for 2009 includes the major maintenance efforts on previous projects. First off is the Bagumbayan Multimedia Learning Center for Excellence a.k.a. the library. This will include, aside from the ongoing replacement of the audio systems, a complete repair of the Main Building roof (the library is on the second floor) so that leaks are eliminated. It will also include the full repainting of the library (to include walls and shelves), rehabilitation of the library tables, cleaning of window panes, and replacement of the varifold partition. The second maintenance project is on the U.P. Industrial Engineering Ergonomics & Human Factors Laboratory, which was donated in 2005. The Foundation will review the need to replace the PCs, wall décor, etc.

Having made a significant infrastructure donation to the Philippine Science High School main campus in Diliman back in 2002, the Foundation will make a final donation, either in 2009 or 2010 – before my youngest child Franco graduates. The target will be either assisting in the fit-out of the second floor of the main building that was destroyed by fire two months ago, or, to assist in the complete refurbishing of the 3rd floor auditorium.

Starting January 2009, the Foundation will work with Libis Elementary School to conduct a school-wide computer literacy program for the remainder of the 2008-09 school year. The Foundation will review and suggest changes to the curriculum, provide technical support to keep the 10-12 PCs running during computer classes, and find volunteer teachers for the classes. The objective is to provide hands-on familiarity – at least 4 hours of lectures and 24 hours of hands-on – with PCs, Windows OS, word processing, graphics, slide shows, spreadsheets, e-mail, instant messenger and internet access to every student interested in learning.

By the 3rd quarter of 2009, I also anticipate having started the development work on the next big Foundation “thing” – the English literacy and fluency after-school program. The core will be worksheet-based, with drills on the basics of grammar, tense, number, and sentence construction. The style will be similar to Kumon and iSipnayan. We will again select a school to serve as the test bed for the pilot program, hopefully starting 4th quarter 2009. 2010 should see the inclusion of reading comprehension, writing, and vocabulary building into the program content. School year 2010-11 might be the time we could roll the program out to a large school. Speech labs and English-only speaking zones in the schools might be a reality in 2011.

There will be no let-up in the program to purchase and donate storybooks and reference books. Each year, I find the list of donee schools growing longer. And that’s great. We will continue to donate equipment like photocopiers, as we did last June 20, 2008, with Mines Elementary School in Project 8. In the longer-term, beginning 2011, we plan to build additional libraries for other schools. 2012 is when the Foundation intends to begin to adopt a few needy public high schools.

With all the above programs in the pipeline, clearly, major capital infusion will be required for the next three years. For 2009-10 alone, I estimate having to add as much as P5M to the Foundation’s capital fund. I’m confident that Elise and I will not have to put up the entire amount on our own; I have great faith that we will find corporate donors or high net worth individuals out there who will hear – and heed – the Foundation’s call.