PROFILE OF TOWN WHERE THE SCHOOL IS LOCATED
The town of Bambang is located 250 kilometers north of Manila surrounded by mountains and it is located along the biggest river called Magat. It has a total population of more than 40,000. The average income per person in the middle class is about US$150 per month. This is composed of those that are employed by the government and others who are practisioners of their respective professions.

The main source of income is from agriculture with rice and vegetables as the main product. A poor farmer owns an average of more or less one (1) hectare and others even have a fourth of a hectare.

A large number of poor people are tenants of owners of larger rice lands and are paid based on a daily basis from three (3) to four (4) dollars per day only if there are jobs to be done in the farm. And since the town also serves as the trading area for agriculture products such as vegetables and fruits, people get additional jobs as middleman or stevedores who are paid two (2) to four (4) dollars per day.

But due to unfavorable climate in the town particularly during rainy and typhoon seasons, agricultural lands suffer so much that their plant are destroyed whether by strong winds or flooding. This causes farmers to lose almost everything of what they have invested which affects even more the tenants or laborers who are working for them.

Other source of income among the poor sector is doing buy and sell business.
They are those that sell anything on the streets like cooked food, vegetables, and other food products in small items. They walk around the town to sell from house to house.

Other source of income among the poor sector of the community is by driving a tricycle cab as a means of transportation. Not all of them own their tricycle but are hired by owners so they have to share with the income with the owners. Drives earn as low as two (2) to three (3) dollars per day.

Others are carpenters which practically do all do all the things needed in the house construction and earn three (3) dollars per day. Others are self-employed in garage repairing electronic gadgets like old radio and television sets and the like or small car repairs. Others are collecting garbage which can be recycled. But of course they earn so little that they have to shift job quite frequently.

With the increasing cost of living, people are more and more hard up and unable to send their children to school. It is so pity that we could see the young ones not going to school due to financial difficulties and end up as jobless people when they grow up and be pushed to do crimes in order to survive.

As the price of fuel products get higher, the more the prices of food and other basic necessities also get higher. Cost of goods increases while salaries and wages are not increasing.


ACS BUILDING PROFILE
The school is now on its 14th year of operation since 1993 under the
sponsorship program of Faroese-Philippine Services (FPS). Had the FPS not been helping, the school may have not reached its status today or it may have even stopped operation.

The school has a two-floor building structure with five (5) rooms in each level. We were able to build the structure from the financial support of the Faroese Government which was facilitated by the FPS. The two level phase of the building have been completed and now we are working on raising funds for the third floor level and with a temporary annex for the administration and a clean dining area (canteen) for the staff, teachers and pupils.

Urgent Need
What we needed most is to build the annex for the administration and the canteen. At the moment, our administration is using the temporary shelter where the staff gets wet including their records when it rains so heavily.
We have temporarily fixed that problem so the administration staff can use it while we don't have yet the amount to build it. We need at least US$3,000 to build the annex.

FPS SONSORHSIP PROGRAM
We have at the moment a total of 186 pupils and many of them are being financially supported through the sponsorship program of the FPS. This is composed of the Kinder, Preparatory and Grades 1-6 pupils. We also follow pupils who are now in their high school and college levels who are now enrolled in other higher learning schools.

The ACS is growing primarily because of the FPS sponsorship program that is attracting poor families to avail of the sponsorship. We have been so brokenhearted when families come to school and ask for sponsorship so they can send their children to the school. But the sponsorship only have so much for who have been sponsored.

Fernando Hernandez Jr.
One pupil we are very much touched is named Fernando Hernandez Jr. He has been receiving sponsorship since 2000. Fernando's family are staying in a small land area of which they are asked by the owner to take care of it.
Since there is no house in the said lot, Fernando's father has to build a temporary house made of bamboo, wood and other hard paper and metal materials picked from anywhere. The owner has made it easy for them not to pay any rent of the land since they are to take care of the small lot.

The house Fernando's father built has only one room where they prepare and eat their food and at the same time use it as their bedroom during the night. There is no good water supply. They have to fetch water from the nearest water pump of a neighbor. One cannot see much kitchen wares and appliance in the house. And when it rains, the roof is not good enough to protect them from being wet, so Fernando's father has to check it from time to time to fix the roofing.

Fernando's parents have not finished any course in school. His father only went to school for five years and has not finished his elementary while his mother went to school for nine years and have not even finished high school.

Fernando's father only source of income is to serve as manual carrier (stevedore) or laborer carrying agriculture products from one vegetable truck to another truck to be transported to Manila. There are no automated machines to do this in the work area. Many times, Fernando's father could only earn one (1) to two (2) dollars per day as an stevedore. His father's meager income is not enough for their daily basic needs especially food and for school expenses for Fernando.

When they don't have anything for food, Fernando's mother has to borrow rice from friends and neighbors so they can have something to cook. Fernando's mother wants to earn some money by doing some laundry job or do some selling because he has to stay home and take care of his younger brother. She can only do it part-time.

Fernando's parents are so happy that Fernando has been considered to receive the FPS sponsorship otherwise they couldn't send him to school and thus causing them to deprive Fernando of the education he needed for his future.

Wilhelm Paul Obal
Wilhelm Paul is now a second year high school, also a recipient of FPS sponsorship. His parents are very thankful because he could still go to school through FPS sponsorship despite their financial difficulties they are experiencing. Both parents of Wilhem Paul have not finished high school.
They don't have a house of their own. They are being accommodated by relatives where they share expenses.

Recently, the family of Wilhelm Paul had moved outside the town proper of Bambang in Barangay Barat, Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya because of a conflict with the owner of the house where the family lived in the town proper. This has made it more difficult for Wilhelm Paul going to a distant school which is an added burden due to a more expensive transportation cost from where they now live to the school in the town proper.

It is too difficult for them to earn something for their food when the rice field where the father of Wilhelm Paul is a tenant (laborer, not an owner) has been destroyed by a strong typhoon and was covered with mud destroying the rice plants. This has made Wilhelm Paul's father jobless then.

Paul Wilhelm's father had to find another farmland where he could be a tenant. Now he is a tenant of a half hectare rice land where he earns nine (9) dollars a month or 218 dollars per year. After doing the planting in the rice field when there is no more job to do until harvest time, he has to look for a vacant tricycle cab and drive it for passengers so he can have additional income while there is no job in the farm. He is earning about nine (10) dollars per month since it is not on a daily basis.

On the other hand, Wilhelm Paul's mother continue to do some laundry job and earn fifteen (15) dollars a month and sometimes resell rice cakes and other home made food products on the streets and earn additional income for the family's food but still short of the needs for school of other children.

Wilhelm Paul's parents are so happy for the continuous FPS sponsorship program that he is a part of to continue going to school and get a good education.


STATUS FOR SPONSORSHIP
We have more and more pupils accepted in the school even without sponsors in the hope that they get FPS sponsorship later. We have more than 20 of them who don't receive any sponsorship but are hoping that they would get soon.

To solve the problem, some of the parents have promised to help defray minimal cost for teir children's schooling. Some parents who are selling vegetables on streets come to school on a daily basis and give a small percentage of what they earned for the day.

One parent even have to drop by school after selling his goods in the
afternoon and give the amount of 90 cents daily but she could not do it on a regular basis since she would need it for other expenses for the family.
What we do at the school to share whatever is available for those who don't have sponsorship.

TEACHERS AND STAFF AT THE SCHOOL
We have nine (9) intelligent full time teachers who are receiving an average of US$120 per month. This is far lower than what is received in government schools. We also have six (6) administration staff with an average salary of US$65 a month.

Many of the teachers and staff don't even have their own house. Their
families are either living temporarily with their parents' house or renting a house.

Sherill Depositario-Orcahadas
We have one couple (the wife is a teacher and the husband is the utilityman of the school) who have been accommodated in a house near the school. They are occupying one small room since there are two families in that house.

The teacher just gave birth to a new baby and we are so helpless to even give a better place for them including the new baby. The room is too small and warm. No good air conditioning. It is good that the weather is cooler this month. We have seen them also sleeping on a hard bed and we have to borrow soft mattresses for the couple and the new baby.
In the house, they have to share with the kitchen and the dining room. The house is not furnished. It is a dilapidated house but it could still stand heavy rains.

Aurefel Madera
Another teacher together with his family is renting a house. This is an
added expenses for them since they don't have their own house. Now the teacher's wife is pregnant for the second baby and makes it difficult for them to even get vitamins and even go to a medical doctor for check up. They really have to squeeze what they are receiving from the school in order to go on teaching.

The teachers and staff have to meet both ends to be able to survive on a monthly basis. If we could get more FPS sponsorship to those who are at school who don't have sponsorships, at least we can raise salaries of teachers and give them what they really deserve.

It is getting more difficult due to increasing cost of living nowadays in
the Philippines. We have a bad political climate which only makes it more difficult to those who are poor. We have an economic situation here in the Philippines where THE RICH BECOME RICHER AND THE POOR BECOMES REALLY POOR.

Had it not for the FPS sponsorship program, we would not be able to provide education to children who are helpless and hopeless. And this FPS sponsorship program are also helping our teachers to go on teaching despite of low salaries and wages they are receiving.

Despite of the financial difficulties, the teachers and staff are very thankful of what FPS sponsorship have helped them for without the sponsorship program, these teachers and other people involved in the school wouldn't have a job at all and would probably be more in a more difficult financial situation.