Telecom firms, SM team up to school .25M street kids

A team up among Sony Ericsson, Ericsson Telecommunications Inc. Philippines and SM Supermalls seeks to provide mobile education among street children, with the companies initially contributing a mobile educational van worth P1 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) which has a program to provide assistance for families living on the streets initially in Quezon City.

The mobile educational van contains teaching materials and is equipped with a laptop, mobile broadband access and other communication tools to conduct sessions directly to street children and their families.

“Ericsson’s vision has always been to make communication accessible to all. Now by working hand in hand with our partners, we are making education available to all, beginning with the children in our local communities who are most in need,” Rajendra Pangrekar, Ericsson Philippines president and country manager, said.

“Studies estimate that there are at least 250,000 children on the streets of the Philippines scattered in major cities nationwide. Fifty thousand are highly visible, spending their days and nights on the streets,” Unicef country representative Vanessa Tobin said.

The “I-Share ang Saya” campaign is supported by the Unicef Mobile Education and Child Protection Program for Children on the streets of Manila.

With the campaign, Sony Ericsson and Ericsson donated P1 million for the purchase of the educational van and other teaching materials.

The campaign also introduced new Sony Ericsson handsets — Satio, Aino and Kita — in the exhibits held at SM Supermalls, the exclusive venue partner for the campaign. With each purchase of the handset, buyers contribute to the campaign for Unicef.

Cash donation bins were also set up in the mall exhibits of the campaign to help raise additional funds for the project. The three-month campaign for the exhibits, which featured a Unicef booth, toured SM North Edsa, SM Mall of Asia, SM Cebu, SM Davao, SM Baguio, SM Pampanga, SM Bacolod, SM Iloilo, SM Naga and SM Megamall.

The mobile educational van will be managed by the Lingap Pangkabataan Inc., the non-government organization partner of Unicef, which employed trained street educators and social workers to provide counselling, parenting sessions for adults and caregivers, reintegration or mainstreaming of street children to formal school or referral to Alternative Learning Sessions and vocational skills training program.

“Our work with partners such as Lingap Pangkabataan is very important as it provides direct assistance to children on the ground where they are most vulnerable,” Tobin said.

The “I-Share Ang Saya” campaign started in November 2009 for the public to experience unlimited entertainment while raising funds to support the Unicef project. It followed another Sony Ericsson project, “Spread the Smiles,” that was conducted throughout Asia, where photographed smiles were collected online, in shops and in SM Supermalls. The Philippines yielded over a million photos and raised P1 million for the benefit of Unicef.  –Danessa Rivera, Daily Tribune