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For isolated tribe, Philippine rickshaw brings learning amid pandemic

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Adrian Portugual and Eloisa Lopez, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/reuters/10/15/rickshaw-aeta-1.jpg"/><figcaption>Jerico Lansang, a local government worker and parent of an Aeta student, fixes the modules on a makeshift rickshaw learning center, where students struggle with distance learning in the Aeta community amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Porac, Pampanga Oct. 12, 2020. <em>Eloisa Lopez, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p><br/>PORAC - When the pandemic shut Philippine schools, a group of teachers living near the indigenous Aeta people became so concerned about the impact on the children of the isolated community that they initiated a novel approach to help them - learning by rickshaw.</p><p>While many students across the Philippines have been able to take online classes, the Aeta villages in a mountainous area north of Manila are largely without internet access - or even television reception - for distance learning. </p><p>&quot;We had to think of an alternative way to bring the lessons to the children,&quot; said Christopher Semsem, one of the teachers behind the project from the Villa Maria Integrated School.</p><p>So using old bookshelves and wooden boards, the teachers built a makeshift learning center complete with a large monitor mounted on top of a motorcycle rickshaw that can bring learning to the villages in the rural province of Pampanga.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/reuters/10/15/rickshaw-aeta-2.jpg"/><figcaption>Aeta students queue to sanitize their hands before a session at the makeshift rickshaw learning center for Aeta community distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Porac, Pampanga Oct. 12, 2020. <em>Eloisa Lopez, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p><br/>Teachers pre-record videos on their mobile phones that are played on the monitor to assist with lessons while avoiding the need for face-to-face contact with the children.</p><p>So far Aeta students had responded enthusiastically to the courses and their parents were relieved classes had resumed, the teachers say.</p><p>There is debate among anthropologists about the origins of the Aeta, but many have moved to permanent settlements after deforestation upended their traditional nomadic way of life.</p><p>School Principal Marizen Tolentino said the rickshaw initiative was vital to help the children comprehend the modules.</p><p>&quot;Some of our Aeta (students) cannot read ... How are they going to be able to answer the modules?&quot; questioned Tolentino.</p><p>Since launching the initiative in early October, the rickshaw has visited five villages, reaching around 500 students from primary school to senior high, two to three times a week.</p><p>The project by the teachers is entirely voluntary, though the local government provided the rickshaw and driver.</p><p><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES:</strong><br/>Meet the first Aeta graduate of University of the Philippines in Manila </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jiCy1Kd1bFs?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>When the pandemic shut Philippine schools, a group of teachers living near the indigenous Aeta people became so concerned about the impact on the children of the isolated community that they initiated a novel approach to help them - learning by rickshaw.<br /> </p>

When the pandemic shut Philippine schools, a group of teachers living near the indigenous Aeta people became so concerned about the impact on the children of the isolated community that they initiated a novel approach to help them - learning by rickshaw.

For isolated tribe, Philippine rickshaw brings learning amid pandemic

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For isolated tribe, Philippine rickshaw brings learning amid pandemic

Adrian Portugual and Eloisa Lopez,

Reuters

Published October 15, 2020 06:04 PM PHT

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