Philippines Dictionary Project: Promoting children's literacy, one dictionary at a time by Mia Saavedra

12/19/2008 | Ayala Foundation USA

When Nina Patawaran told her high school friends that legendary tycoon Washington Sycip himself had invited her to lunch in New York to hear more about her literacy project, they were incredulous. They couldn’t believe that the Mr. Wash Sycip, of SGV fame, would give her, their former pigtail-wearing classmate, the time of day. That is, until she showed them Sycip's letter, signed by the man himself, as proof of her claim.

Innovative solution to age-old problem
A couple of years ago, Nina, a banker who is based in New York, donated 160 books to a public elementary school some 3-hours away from Dumaguete, the capital of Negros Oriental. When Nina decided to check up on her donation, she discovered, to her dismay, that pilferage had occurred. The books were taken either while they were on their way to the public school or someone from the school had "borrowed" the books and never returned them.

Nina was told that such an occurrence was common in public schools, and she was urged to accept it as part and parcel of donating to public schools in the Philippines. "I truly, obstinately, refused to accept that any donor should be resigned to having his/her donated books pilfered over time," Nina says firmly. "I just could not sit back and condone the pilferage; what more reward bad behavior by donating even more books to make up for the pilfered copies!"

Disappointed but undeterred, Nina resolved to come up with a way for donors like her to avoid such unfortunate circumstances. Nina summoned her almost 15 years of banking experience to come up with an innovative solution to an age-old problem. "The bottom line is, schools need not necessarily own books, but they definitely need access to books, and lots of them."

Indeed, conversations with Nina about her project are peppered with banking concepts such as "alignment of interests", "robust checks and balances", "proper documentation", "credit enhancements" and "repossess and redeploy assets". Nina believes that only with thoughtful mechanics that equally protect all parties involved can a project achieve transparency, accountability and sustainability. Attaining this lofty goal was critical otherwise no donor would feel comfortable donating to the cause.

The Philippines Dictionary Project works through a community of stakeholders composed of donors, an appointed trustee/lender-of-record (who acts on behalf of the donors), borrowers, and a guarantor - all banking principles which Nina applied to guide her through her planning stage. The trustee/lender-of-record in this case is Silliman University, which has generously agreed to house 1,400 copies (for the first round) of brand-new, age-appropriate, illustrated hardbound English dictionaries (Scholastic First Dictionary Revised Edition) suitable for public elementary school students from grades 1-6. Borrowers are partner public elementary schools, randomly chosen (through lottery) by Nina herself. Each of these public elementary schools gets to borrow 50 dictionaries for 1 school year. To guarantee transparency and traceability, each book is labeled with the name of the donor and stamped with a catalogue number assigned by Silliman University. The loan document between Silliman University and each borrower school specifies the catalogue numbers of the loaned books. If donors wish to trace the whereabouts of their donations, they can easily do so by way of their donated books' catalogue numbers.

Finally, Nina enlisted the help of Congresswoman Jocelyn Limkaichong (from the 1st District of Negros Oriental). Congresswoman Limkaichong agreed to guarantee the performance of public elementary schools belonging to her congressional district. Should books get lost or incur any damages while in the care of the borrower school, Congresswoman Limkaichong, as guarantor, will shoulder the costs of replacing and/or repairing the books. This ingenious strategy strongly encourages schools that are dependent on government funds (including funds from Congresswoman Limkaichong) to exercise more caution when handling the borrowed books.

Not a dole-out; consequences for less than ideal behavior
Nina is quick to say that the project is not the dole-out type. Indeed, Nina frowns upon the very idea of dole-outs, believing that it is only by converting recipient schools into stakeholders can they become empowered. "We want to make sure that the borrower schools feel that they're not just passive recipients; they, too, have a stake in this project." In this system of lending and borrowing, borrower schools need to pay a nominal rental fee of Php500 per school year for the 50 books that they borrow. This fee goes to Silliman University to partially reimburse them for the cost of protective plastic book covers, cataloguing and other operational expenses. The detailed memorandum of agreement, which is signed by the three parties composed of the borrower school, Silliman University and Congresswoman Limkaichong (as guarantor), stipulates that a dictionary loan will not be renewed for the following school year if the borrower school damages/loses 5 or more dictionaries while in their care - a stark reminder that these precious resources can be redeployed to other more deserving schools should the situation warrant such.

Solution catered to the Philippine situation
Nina has always been an advocate of children's literacy and has been on the lookout for novel literacy programs for public elementary school students. She decided to build her own literacy project after realizing that while there are many organizations that do a wonderful job of distributing reading materials to public elementary schools, there was no Philippine-based organization that focused on distributing dictionaries to public elementary school kids with the aim of achieving a 1:1 student-to-dictionary ratio. Most non-profit organizations that donate reading materials tend to focus on textbooks and/or storybooks. If ever dictionaries are bundled with these reading materials, typically only 1 dictionary is given for the entire school. "It was interesting that a lot of folks lament the very limited English vocabulary of public school students. However, the most basic tool to expand the vocabulary of these students (and their teachers) seems to have been overlooked," Nina relates. The event that finally spurred Nina to embark on this project was a public elementary school principal telling her in June 2008 that the school would happily give up around 100 chapter books meant for 4th-6th graders in exchange for "as many children's English dictionaries as could be spared."

In affluent nations, schools aim to have 1 dictionary available for each student. This model would be too expensive for the Philippines which suffers from limited financial resources and over-population. Based on the feedback of school principals, the project adopts a modified model: 1 dictionary for ach child during the class time devoted to dictionary activities. With an average class size hovering around the mid- to upper-40s, teachers welcome a set of 50 dictionaries so that they need not waste precious time placating students when there are insufficient copies of identical books. Schools are taught to rotate the set of dictionaries through all class sections each week. And just in case there is any doubt about the project's goals, the dictionary loan's memorandum of agreement requires borrower schools to provide at least one hour per week of dictionary classroom activities for each class section, thereby ensuring that the dictionaries will actually be used by the students.

As a reaction to the arrival of dictionaries for 28 schools, the Department of Education Negros Oriental Provincial Division designed a program to train teachers how to build students' pre-dictionary skills. This is but one of the positive changes triggered by the project!

Success in large part thanks to bite-size givers
Nina's enthusiasm has spread like wildfire. "I'm very touched and inspired by the bite-size donors of this project," Nina says. And indeed bite-size donors, including some who do not have any family ties to the Philippines, make up the lifeblood of the initiative. There is Domingo Moras, a Cuban. "He works for the apartment building where I live. He found out about the project and signed up for 1 dictionary!" Nina recounts. "There is also our office's cleaning woman who is Albanian," Nina continues with a smile. "Camile Nesimi came to clean the office every afternoon. This woman doesn't have any Filipino blood, has never been to the Philippines and yet when she heard about my project and the fact that no Albanian had donated to the project to-date, she pledged to donate 1 dictionary and some!" The same goes for Nina's Brazilian officemate who donated 6 dictionaries to ensure that Brazil was represented in the donor pool. Other friends and work colleagues stepped up to represent their respective countries in the donor pool such that at least 20 countries are now represented.

Nina also recounts stories of 1st time Filipino donors such as Rebecca Escano, a New York-based Filipina nanny who donated 1 dictionary, and who also convinced her Greek boyfriend to donate another dictionary to the project as well. There is the California-based cousin of a friend who donated 1 dictionary after hearing that every dictionary would bear the donor's name and will be traceable. This donor remarked, "For once, I will be able to touch with my own hands the item that is purchased with my small donation!"

Nina is grateful to all of her friends (Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike) for not only donating to the project but for also approaching their own families, friends and colleagues to raise additional funds for the project. By spreading news of the project, an operating room nurse friend raised funds for 100 dictionaries, a lawyer's executive assistant friend raised funds for 80 books, a hedge fund office manager friend raised funds for 75 books and a pediatrician friend raised funds for 60 books. Even the younger generation has been enlisted: Nina's niece turned her recent 14th birthday party into a mini-fundraising and she managed to raise funds for 9 dictionaries!

"I really envision this project to be a grassroots movement wherein absolutely anyone can give without balking at the cost," Nina says. "Although my friends and I do plan to approach companies, we want ordinary folks to be as much a part of meaningful change as affluent donors. No donation is too small. One dictionary here and another dictionary there, before you know it, you've got 50 dictionaries which is enough to help out a school of around 500 students."
Nina recounts how she would talk about the project to anyone and everyone who cared to listen. Now, plenty of people are sitting up and paying attention. Nina's dogged perseverance and the project's merit earned her the trust of Sycip, who donated 50 books, and Scholastic (the dictionary publisher), which pledged to donate 50 books for every 1,000 books purchased by this project. The pilot program, which originally targeted 10 schools, launched last November 7th with 28 schools. Funds continue to arrive and there are now enough funds to expand the program to at least 40 schools by June 2009.

Embodies positive Filipino traits
In the end, Nina believes, this project "embodies what is positive in the Filipino culture." "There's generosity, first and foremost. Creativity, in terms of finding solutions to problems. Add to that, discipline which should be fostered in each and every one of us. Then, there's the willingness and ability to learn from other cultures and industries out there." Nina pauses a bit. "Finally, I hope this project shows just what can happen when we do try to change our ways for the better."

Indeed, those are some profound words coming from the experience of the Philippines Dictionary Project.
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Donations may be made by check to either of Ayala Foundation, Inc. (with mailing address BPI Head Office Building, 10th Floor Ayala cor Paseo de Roxas Avenues | Makati City 1200) or Ayala Foundation USA (with mailing address 255 Shoreline Dr., Suite 428 | Redwood City, CA 94065). Please specify "Philippines Dictionary Project"on the check and please provide your name, telephone number, postal address and email address for receipt and project status update purposes. Receipts for Philippine/US tax deduction purposes will be issued. Php350/US$8.50 will sponsor 1 dictionary.