C & E Foundation, Inc., (CEFI) the philanthropic arm of the C & E Group of Companies, signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with BDO Foundation (BDOF) and Kusog Tacloban at the BDO Corporate Center in Makati City last November 29 to provide teachers with learning kits for kindergarten and Grade 1 pupils in areas most affected by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in 2013.

C & E Publishing, Inc. chief operating officer John Emyl Eugenio, CEFI executive director Anna Marie de Castro, Kusog Tacloban president Teresa Custodio, and BDOF trustees Lucy Co Dy and Jerome Guevarra signed the MOA entrusting to BDOF the distribution of more than 500 learning kits for elementary schools in Samar and Leyte through BDO’s branches in the region.

Exclusively prepared by CEFI and initially distributed by Kusog Tacloban in October 2015 through its project “Andam Pag-aram” (a local term that means “prepared to learn”), the kit equips teachers with appropriate educational materials including phonetic readers, interactive charts, songs, vowel cards, and storybooks designed to aid young learners in mastering alphabetic principles, phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, short vowel sounds, and blending.

Kusog Tacloban is a registered non-profit organization that provides sustainable and integrated community interventions in Leyte and Samar in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda. “Kusog” in Waray means “strength.”

BDOF, the corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank, Inc., pursues a disaster response advocacy and conducts relief operations in areas devastated by natural and human-induced calamities. In 2015, the foundation constructed school buildings as part of its rehabilitation program.