In 2011, a residential home was opened to a small community in Barangay Holy Spirit to cater to the educational needs of the poor. A wide selection of textbooks, magazines, books, and novels were made readily available for the kids to use –for free.
The aim is to spearhead activities and open a venue of learning for poor children rural and urban settings.
Now, the home has been renovated to reflect a four story building, with the second floor up to the fourth floor being turned into office/apartment space while the first floor remaining to be the library for the kids.
The people behind the humble project called Kristiyano-Islam Peace Library (KRIS library) is the Nocum family. Originally starting the initiative in 2001 in their hometown Zamboanga, the family has now built six libraries in various places around the country including Tungawan, Bangkal, Rizal, and Davao.
While the space in QC is still empty, filled only with mono bloc chairs and tables, Arizza Nocum, daughter of the founder, says that they will soon be filling the area with bookshelves to eventually turn it into a real library.
For now, the blank space is being used for fun activities for the kids. And me, together with seven friends (Mich, Echo, Karyl, Mehli, Rex, Glenda, and Chris), spearheaded an event there this afternoon.
With books, snacks, and some school supplies on hand, we spent hours playing, reading, and singing with the kids. We accommodated about 30 kids but in total, Nocum says there are about 60-70 kids currently benefiting from the library.
The kids, aged from 3 to 11, were kind of hard to manage because they insist on playing, running, roaming around, basically being kids but you could see that they were eager to learn, to listen, and even more than willing to give you their smiles, which is more than enough. 🙂
After the event, the kids went to their respective homes.
In case you’re interested to volunteer, here’s what to bring/prepare:
- Program
- School Supplies for the kids
- Reading materials / coloring books
- Snacks
- Sticker for names of each participants
- Prizes for the games (optional)
For donations, they accept the following: children’s books, textbooks, dictionary, encyclopedias, etc.
Kris Library
Contact No.: + (63) 915 265 9596 / + (63) 917 329 4503 / + (632) 352 2313
Email: admin@krislibrary.com / krispeacelibrary@gmail.com
Website: krislibrary.com
Address: 9 Dona Isidora Street, Don Antonio Heights, Diliman, Quezon City.
God bless you for your big hearts in making a difference in the lives of these children.
This is great! We should have more libraries like this throughout the country to increase the literacy rates among Filipino children. 🙂
Good to know there are still a number of good folks out there! Keep them reading!
We don’t have enough public libraries in the Philippines and I’m glad for these initiatives that reach out to children. Hoping this place gets filled with lots of learning materials soon! God bless your heart! 🙂
What a great idea! And I love the name KRIS (Kristiyano-Islam) Peace Library. What we need in this is a reminder that religion should never divide us but rather, unite us on one goal – which is to help our nation. Sana madami pang ganito.
This is such a great initiative. I bet all the kids will benefit from this innovative idea. Apart from the initiative, I admire the equality on this project- this simply means that religion is not a barrier. Keep it up, Shayne! 🙂
This is a good project where kids will surely benefit from. I hope more people will volunteer. I’ll be spreading the word so that more people will be able to help.
That’s very nice to hear, Vance! Thank you! 🙂
This is a great way to instill to children the importance of books. I think an animated story telling session will keep the smaller kids more interested.
I agree with you, Badet. The animated storytelling is a good idea! Maybe we’ll try that with our next outreach.
I’ve always wanted to do an outreach program like this. You are a great blessing to these children. 🙂
Angelo
http://www.AngeloTheExplorer.com