The secondary education of at least ten young male wards at the Davao City’s Welfare Action Foundation, Inc. more popularly known as Boys Town in Maa remains ensured this school year even amidst rising incidence of poverty.
This after the Aboitiz-owned electric utility Davao Light & Power Co. turned over Wednesday, August 25, its financial assistance of P150,000 for the boys shelter institution at the Boys Town compound in Ma-a, Davao City. The support is now on its 10th year run.
The check was turned over by Davao Light Executive Vice President Arturo M. Milan to Boys Town President Salvador Angala. The money will cover for the education and board of at least ten of the Boys Town’s close to a hundred wards. The boys, mostly orphaned or abandoned, are studying at nearby Maa National High School.
The company’s support to the Boys Town is not really new. Records at the Foundation show that during its early years the Aboitiz family had been providing support ranging from material to financial, and even moral.
In accepting the latest cash assistance, Boys Town President Angala said the beneficiaries can already be certain they can finish high school. He said after nine years of continuous Davao Light support, some sixty (60) wards have already benefited and about 34 got out of the shelter house with secondary diploma tucked on their waist. Of the beneficiaries some were sent to Don Bosco College in Makati to take skills-based courses mostly on automotive technology. Others were sent to Don Bosco Center in Mati, Davao Oriental, also to study vocational disciplines. Last year, eight wards who graduated from high school were given a 3 months comprehensive carpentry and masonry skills training by the Association of Construction and Informal Workers (ACIW), a TESDA-accredited training group. The training was also funded by Davao Light.
The institution has already produced a veterinarian, a priest, and some expert truck body builders and mechanics. Two former Boys Town wards are now gainfully working in large automotive assembly plants in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
