Zamboanga turns page on siege with new SMFI school building

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The SM Foundation and SM Prime turned over a newly built two-story school building to Sta. Barbara Central Elementary School in Zamboanga City, which was heavily ravaged during the Zamboanga siege in 2013.

School principal Anna Liza Martin says that none of the three multi-story school buildings of Sta. Barbara Central School survived the attacks as all of them were rendered unusable after the siege.

As the campus fell under the control of insurgents who barricaded themselves inside the classrooms, all school facilities were either completely demolished or considered dangerous to use for everyday classes.

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Sta. Barbara Central School caters to almost 3,000 enrollees, 99 percent of whom are Muslim learners from four nearby barangays.

Aside from the classrooms, Martin says that all their learners lost considerable school hours, added to the stress and pressure of having to relocate to neighboring schools just to catch up.

Now, more than a decade later, SMFI continues to help ease the educational challenges the siege caused as it turns over the new building to the teachers and the learners of Sta. Barbara Central School.

SMFI executive director for education programs Carmen Linda Atayde, in her speech during the turnover ceremony, says that it is the 109th school building that the foundation has donated to schools all over the country. This is the second school building the foundation has built in Zamboanga.

The four-classroom building is equipped with electric fans for proper ventilation, toilets, and washbasins inside the classrooms.

The SMFI also furnished the classrooms with 25 left-handed armchairs, which the PWD community in Manila made, as well as facilities for PWD learners and teachers.

The new building also has a clinic, a mini library, and a room dedicated to the arts and music.

Sta. Barbara Central School has almost 3,000 enrollees, 99 percent of whom are Muslim learners from nearby Barangays Sta. Barbara, Rio Hondo, Marique, and Kasanyagan.

Grade 2 and kindergarten learners will use the new building.

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