Every year, joining Brigada Eskwela is one of the traditions of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines in connection to their promise-helping other people at all times. In this year’s Brigada Eskwela, Scout of the World Award (SWA) was introduced to the Tagumenyong Scouts. While the scouts are conducting their Brigada Eskwela project they can also use this opportunity to apply for the Scout of the World Award.

            The initial plan of Rover Scouts Circle No. 2 for their incoming project is to develop and choose a certain area in a school that wasn’t given much of attention and should be taken care of. Aside from they will also help the teachers in painting the walls, arranging and transferring their things. After that they will donate some tools that would be used in developing the area. After they visit their chosen beneficiary school and found out their common problems they decided to reach out those different schools from remote areas here in Tagum City to also help them. While working as a volunteer they will also conduct a feeding program to the kids who will enroll into that area and to their fellow volunteers.

            This project is not just about helping the school prepare to the upcoming opening of 2019 – 2020 school year moreover, this is also to deepen the connection between the members of Rover Circle 2. Since there are new members of the circle who also participate as volunteers. This project will become a bridge to connect each member’s thoughts and skills for future projects to come.

 

        Before conducting any project there should always be a planning stage. The Team Leader for Circle No. 2 gathered their members who is interested to volunteer their time to help those school who needs volunteer workers and only 14 rover scouts and 2 rover peers answered the call. After the orientation, the scouts start to plan their project in which they decided that they will develop an area inside the school that needs attention and should be taken care of.  After that, they chose two major beneficiary schools, which are the Canocotan National High School and the Herculina L. Edig Elementary.

On the next day, the scouts visited their chosen schools and asked about the areas in that certain school that needs so much attention but weren’t given that much. In this case, the two major school both wants to beautify their Gulayan sa Paaralan, classroom arrangement, and Canocotan National High School also wants to paint the hallway’s ceiling. After the inspection, they all list the things that they observed and suggestions in their assigned area and submitted it to their team leader.

 

On the last day, the scouts finalized their plan on what to do, since they already identified the issues on their target schools which are as follows:

• Lack of volunteers
• Messy Classroom
• Broken hallway ceiling that also needs re-painting
• Broken Pots
• The garden is filled with grass where you can no longer see the plants there.
• Too many garbage

In this time, the rovers together with the two rover peers finalized their plans for their project. Moreover, they decided that after they finished their project they are going to donate something that could help the Gulayan sa Paaralan coordinator maintain their garden. The school is well equipped with the cleaning tools aside from broom, dustpan and water sprinkler. Furthermore, the rovers realized they can do much more than they could. They have all the resources that they need including the transportation going to their chosen school, So they decided to also help other schools in Tagum City  and conduct a feeding program that are located in the remote areas that needs their help. They chose six schools namely: Luis L. Lina Elementary School, San Isidro Elementary School, Pandapan Integrated School, New Balamban Elementary School, Nueva Fuerva Elementary School, and Cabugan Elementary School.

The scouts divide their group into two. Group 1 will be the one who will work in arranging the classroom, painting their walls and etc. while Group 2 will be the one who will conduct a feeding program to the volunteers or students who will participate in Brigada Eskwela in the 6 schools mentioned. After the meeting, the team assigned a temporary Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer who will handle in holding their money and buying all the things they need especially the tools that they are going to donate to the two beneficiary schools. They also agreed that each of them will donate ingredients for their Feeding program and for the tools that they are going to give to their beneficiary schools.

            As a Tagumeyong Scout, serving the community thru various community-based projects has always been a very fulfilling emotion. In this year’s Brigada Eskwela wherein the scouts were able to help numerous schools in Tagum City, they have also achieved a lot of things that would help the world become a better place.

In Addition, as the Tagumenyong scout do their part in improving the community, they’ve also realized to address more problems that would really help the school. It’s their responsibility to lessen the hardships of the school and present a possible solution. They initiatively present a feeding program, a healthy food that is freely donated and shared by the scouts. This program would help to motivate the participants in participating on the Brigada Eskwela 2019. They went on 8 different schools, different people, and different personalities. And unfortunately, it doesn’t affect their goals. Instead, there were motivated to create a connection to each other. They opened their hands to those people who are willing to help, without any consideration. Together we serve and anyone can serve even Girls or LGBT has the right to serve. It is really important to have a respect in any kind of aspects, since there is genuine knowledge we can get in there that we can apply in our life.

Moreover, as the program was presented on the two beneficiary school, they also suggested to create a possible solution in minimizing the problem of the increase number of plastics collected every day. And it leads to an action of recycling the empty bottled plastic; they made an alternative pots using it and planted more plants. And they successfully did their jobs. However, those projects wouldn’t be possible without the help of those schools. Especially their respected Principals in letting the scouts to do their jobs. It is very important to communicate and collaborate with the community to make things easier.

As the old saying goes “no man is an island” we should set aside our differences and let us work hand in hand for the betterment of our society. Creating this diverse world into a unified world. So that we can make this world not just a better place but a best place to live in.