The secondary education of the young male wards at the Davao City’s Welfare Action Foundation, Inc., more popularly known as Boys Town, in Maa is assured this school year despite dwindling donor support to social institutions.
This, after the Aboitiz-owned electric utility Davao Light & Power Co. turned over Wednesday, September 15, its financial assistance of P150 thousand for the boys’ shelter institution at the Boys Town compound in Ma-a, Davao City. The support is now on its 11th 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 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.
Boys Town President Angala said the beneficiaries can be certain they can finish high school. He said after ten years of continuous Davao Light assistance, some sixty (65) wards have already benefited and about 39 got out of the shelter house with secondary diploma in their hand. 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 such as machining and automotive technology.
Two years ago Davao Light sent eight wards who graduated from high school to a 3-month comprehensive carpentry and masonry skills training at the Association of Construction and Informal Workers (ACIW) Center, a TESDA-accredited training institution.
The Davao Boys Town 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.
