SHARING HOPE 2019 RAFFLE

On Thanksgiving Day, November 28 (Eastern Standard Time), thru live streaming in Facebook, Friends of Tapulanga held its raffle draw of Sharing Hope Raffle 2019 at St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City right after the flag ceremony.  200 tickets were sold to US citizens with 5 raffle prizes. Proceeds of the raffle will go to the scholarship program of the school.

Congratulations to the following winners:

(1^st prize) 11-inch Apple iPad Pro – Meghan Sommers

(2^nd prize) Alexa Echo (3rd generation) – Bob Strauss

(3^rd prize) Apple AirPods wireless headphones – Phil Siegrist

(4^th prize)  Google nest home mini – Robert Graham

(5^th prize) Fitbit Inspire – Madeleine Castro

A huge thanks to everyone who bought tickets to support Friends of Tapulanga! To God be all the glory!

BLOCK SCREENING : FROZEN 2

Last November 21, 2019, Tapulanga Foundation hosted a group screening for FROZEN 2 movie at Ayala Malls Capitol Central in Bacolod City, Philippines. There were a total of 292 students from Pre-school to grade 3, grades 5 and 6, together with their advisers and school and Tapulanga staff.  While watching the movie, everyone enjoyed a snack treat of popcorn and juice!

You can view photos on this link.

On November 24, an official BLOCK SCREENING for the movie FROZEN 2 was again hosted by the foundation, filling up a 325-seat cinema with guests and scholars from grades 9 and 10 with teachers and staff. This was a fundraising activity benefiting the foundation’s healthcare program. Thanks to three generous sponsors, Taters popcorn was given for free to all during the movie.

You can view photos on this link.

We are so thankful to all the donors who generously sponsored the scholars to watch Frozen 2 movie.  To many of the scholars, this was their first time to watch a movie in a cinema!

A big thank you as well goes to all those who supported the fundraiser by watching the movie! To God be all the Glory!

Raffle for a Cause 2019

Last September 16 to October 15, Tapulanga Foundation held a “RAFFLE FOR A CAUSE” fundraising activity for the benefit of the foundation’s college scholarship program. For SY 2019 – 2020, we have 6 college scholars studying in different colleges and universities in Bacolod City.

A total of 300 tickets were sold. Drawing of winners were done last by four students at St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City right after the flag ceremony, with the students, teachers and staff as the audience.

Facebook Live:  https://www.facebook.com/tapulanga/videos/970220543315868/

Congratulations to the following winners:

1^st prize of 10.5-inch Apple iPad Pro – Ms. Arlyn Navarra

2^nd prize of Bose Soundlink Revolve – Dr. Cora Barba

3^rd prize of Fitbit Inspire HR – Mrs. Jhay Montelibano

4^th prize of a pair of Apple Airpods – Mr. Luis Alfonso Kilayko

From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone who supported by buying raffle tickets.  To God be all the Glory!

After 1 year in the Philippines, with 6 amazing months in Tapulanga Foundation and St. Francis of Assisi School, it's time for us to go home.

We have been able to discover this beautiful country and its people.

During this time, we had lots of great experiences. We were able to celebrate the sports fest at school, we saw how the grade 10 students had their graduation and how the new school year started.

Because of this, we want to thank Tapulanga, the staff and of course Ms. Micmic for all the opportunities they gave to us and the hours we laughed together.

We want to thank the St. Francis of Assisi School, the teachers and students, for the love they gave to us during the hours we spent together and great conversations we had.

And we want to thank everyone else who helped us to make this year so great!

It was such a great honor for us to meet everyone!

No "goodbyes" just "see you soon!"

Love,

Annelie and Franzi

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!

The new school year just began on July 1st. While everybody was quite busy during the first week to arrange everything this second week of school, the daily school life is already implemented.

When I first came back to school I saw that some things changed while others still stayed the same. But I will start at the beginning and just tell something about my first day back at the school.

Before I arrived Ms. Micmic and Ms. Leda informed me that I will be able to assist in grade 6 which is the same class as the one I had last year. So in the morning I was happy to join the students in English, Math and Science. During my lunch break, I already recognized the first major change. The school started now to be a plastic free school! So while everyone got their lunch, they had to use some plates and cups which are reusable. When I bought a snack, I didn't receive it in a plastic bag, instead they covered it with a banana leaf.

After my snack, I went to kindergarten where I did the story telling and played with the kids.

And this was the time I saw the second change. All the class rooms got repainted and some of them got re-organized as well. And not only the classrooms got a new look, but also the library where they started to donate some of those hundreds of books and they opened a reading area.

 In this area, the children now have the chance to have some time off of the stressful school day so they can just take their time and read some books.

Last but not least, they also started to build some new classrooms for the students.

All in all, it was a really nice start back to school.

Until next time,

Annelie & Franzi 

As Tapulanga Foundation held its 8th Silay Summer Workshop this 2019, 125 students received their certificates last May 31 for completing the month-long workshops from different classes such as Baking, Basic and Advanced Drawing and Painting, Guitar, Hip Hop Dance and Swimming.

The foundation is truly blessed and thankful to all the sponsors and donors who made possible for scholars to join the workshops, especially AY Foundation, our major sponsor and Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. and Norconsult Management Services, Phils., our minor sponsors. Thank you also to all the students who participated and gave their best in learning.

To all the coaches and teachers who shared their passion to the students: Coach Jubal Zayco, assisted by Alyzandra Gwyneth Dingcong and Erika Dane Zayco for Swimming; Sir Ramon De Los Santos, assisted by Myron De Los Santos for Basic and Advanced Drawing and Painting; Sir Jun Davo for Guitar; Sir Champ Tipon, assisted by Dhenice Armada and Vincent Soluta for Hip Hop Dance; and Annelie Paul and Franzi Osterrieder for Baking, we thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!

To God be all the glory! 

You can view photos of the workshop:

May 6-10, 2019 (Week 1)

Baking Camp: Click Here
Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: (Morning Session) Click Here

Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: (Afternoon Session) Click Here

Guitar Class: Click Here

Hip Hop Class:Click Here

Swimming Camp: Click Here

May 13-17, 2019 (Week 2)

Baking Camp: Click Here
Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: (Morning Session) Click Here 

Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: (Afternoon Session)Click Here

Guitar Class: Click Here

Hip Hop Class: Click Here

Swimming Camp: Click Here

May 20-24, 2019 (Week 3)

Baking Camp: Click Here
Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: Click Here

Guitar Class: Click Here

Hip Hop Class: Click Here

Swimming Camp: Click Here

May 27-30, 2019 (Week 4)

Baking Camp: Click Here
Basic and Advance Drawing and Painting: Click Here

Guitar Class: Click Here

Hip Hop Class: Click Here

Swimming Camp: Click Here

Graduation (May 31, 2019):  Click Here

Baking workshop

This year the school didn't only offer swimming, drawing and painting, hip hop and guitar classes but also  baking class which Annelie and I were in charge of.

We started our first day of baking on May 6th. During the four weeks of baking, we had four different groups of 5 to 7 students. Each group had 5 days of baking.

Week 1: May 6 -  10

Week 2: May 13 -17

Week 3: May 20 - 24

Week 4: May 27 - 31

We learned every day something different. On Monday we baked banana chocolate chip cupcakes, on Tuesday Pretzels which is a typical German food and on Wednesday apple pie. On the next day we made sweet bread out of half of the dough and with the other half we made some little pizzas. Friday was our sweet day so we baked cookies and brownies.

At the end of May, the Tapulanga Foundation arranged a graduation where the students of all workshops got a certificate and the hip hop and guitar classes showed what they learned during this four weeks through intermission numbers.

It was a great honor for us to spent time with the students and to enjoy baking together. We are hoping that all of them will continue baking whenever they have the chance to because they all did a great job!

See you again!

Annelie & Franzi

Week 26 [April 15-19, 2019]

This Monday, we had a free dental clinic for 80 scholars between 7 and 16 years old. 

After the dental treatment, free medicines were given to them.

Thanks to the dentists and one doctor ... they were able to restore everyone's healthy teeth again. Though they weren't only helping the children and the ones with teeth problems, but also the parents came to get a free check-up of their dental health and the doctors did a basic checkup at some of the patients.

Thanks to all the people who helped making this day happen!

See you next week!

Franzi & Annie 👋

Week 25 [April 8-12, 2019]

It's the last week of the school year 2018-2019. Franzi's family came to the Philippines for two weeks and stayed one day in school. Her youngest sister is the same age as the elementary students of St. Francis of Assisi. So after a short while, they started to communicate with each other. Even though it was a little bit complicated due to the language barrier, they made it by learning some words of each other's language and by playing games.

On Friday, the grade 6 students had their graduation. Before all the students got their certificates and medals, a mass was held.

After giving away all the awards, the class sang "A Million Dreams."

The next day was the day of grade 10's moving up ceremony. They had a mass too. After this, everyone got their certificates and diplomas before they started to sing their own chosen song too. After all the festivities, students started to say goodbye to each other.

We wish them all the best on their future!

See you next week!Franzi & Annie 👋

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: 2-Day Holiday!

[Week 24 : April 1 - April 5, 2019 ]

The students were really lucky this week because they had two days without school. While it was a holiday on Tuesday, the students had a day off one Wednesday because all the teachers and the Tapulanga office had their Lent recollection in Nature's Village on this day.

During the rest of the week, the daycare and kindergarten practiced for their moving up which will be this coming Saturday, April 13. Grades 6 and 10 practiced too for their ceremony which will take place at the end of April. All the other classes started with their performance tasks. The performance tasks are the first part of the exams. In the following week, the children will write their last exams of this school year.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

 

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: A friend came to visit!

[Week 23 : March 25 - March 29, 2019 ]

We had another visitor from Germany this week. On Tuesday, Annelie's friend, Johanna, arrived. She joined the P.E. classes on Wednesday during which we introduced her to all the students.

In this classes, we practiced how to pass the ball really fast from one team mate to another while the enemy team tried to block them and get the ball. At the end, we started to play a game again.

On Thursday the whole Tapulanga office had their yearly summer trip. This time we went to Lakawon where everybody had the chance to go swimming, take pictures and eat a great lunch.

When we arrived Friday in the morning, I was really confused because all the students were sitting in the classroom and writing a test, but it wasn't exam week yet. The teachers told me later that it was an achievement test to know how well the students learned in English and Math during the school year.

On the next Monday, we had two special guests, the sponsors Sir Rafe Totengco and Sir Michael Lawn. The two visited our school and the grades 8 to 10 performed their cheer dances for them. Everyone was really blessed.

The following day, grade 6 and grade 10 started with their final exams. While they had their performance task on this day, they had to write the exams the other days.

Wednesday was our P.E. day again so we did some exercise to get to know the technique and in the end we had a game. Sadly grade 10 wasn't able to join because of their exams.

On the last day of the week, Friday, the grade 5 had their free day which means that they went to Bacolod City to go swimming. Grade 4 had the chance to go swimming too but they went there on Thursday. So we hope all the children had fun.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: We had friends from Germany!

[Week 22:  March 18 – March 22, 2019]

During this school week, nothing really special happened despite the fact that we had some visitors again. Franzi’s Boyfriend, Luca, together with her two friends, Julia and Jana, came from Germany to visit her in the Philippines after travelling around Luzon. They were eager to see how our work looks like. 

On Monday and Thursday, we showed them our normal schedule at St. Francis. We first went to our classrooms for English, Science and Math classes, then went to the Library and read stories in daycare and kindergarten. The kids were so excited to see new faces and lost their shyness by asking a lot of questions. It was really fun to see how our friends and the students interacted with each other.

On Wednesday, we could continue with our handball tutorial during P.E. class for Grades 7 to 10. This time, we started to get used to the ball with some passes and throws after a warm up specialized for handball. The students participated very well and they seem to had fun practicing their handball skills and playing with the ball. You could see that they already had some experience in dribbling and passing through basketball. So, we could already play a little handball game at the end of the day with grade 10. We only have few weeks left until the end of the school year so we will speed up and introduce some defending and attacking techniques and tactics. We are confident that we will see a real handball game at the end of our tutorial.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: Our Handball Class has Started!

[Week 21:  March 11 – 15, 2019]

Back to school after that exciting sports week, we had normal schedule back. We experienced again interesting lessons with our grade 5 and 6 students and organized the library where we can already see a progress, but there is still a lot to do until the end of the school year.

We had a lovely time during the storytelling in daycare and kindergarten. This week, we had company from one of the other volunteers from our German organization. Her name is Anis and she is working in an orphanage in Bacolod City, which is about one hour away from Silay City. She was curious about our new work at school. We had a great time together and the kids liked listening to her story.

During their Physical Education (P.E.) class last Wednesday, we started to introduce handball to the junior high school students, which we will cover for the rest of the school year. Few weeks ago, the kids asked us what sport we did back in Germany and when we answered handball, they were quite confused because they have never heard of handball before. So, we started to introduce it to them this week, explaining the sport and its rules. After that, we showed some videos of how the game looks like and their reactions were gorgeous. You could really see and hear their excitement when they finally knew what handball is and we hope they will have a lot of fun playing it in the next weeks – because we are really excited.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal Let's Go! - SFAS Sportsfest 2019

[ Week 20 : March 04 - 08, 2019]

The first week of March was a really special one for us because it was St. Francis’ annual Sportsfest week. The students enjoy different sports activities and embrace their skills and talents .

On Monday, all junior high school students from grades 7 to 10 performed their cheerdance, which they prepared very well the weeks before. Everyone did a great job and we really admired their nice dances. At the end, the Blue Panthers (grade 10) won the cheerdance competition for the first time after 3 years! They were so happy and some cried tears of joy. 

Not only the students from junior high school showed their dancing skills on Monday. The kids from daycare, kindergarten and elementary school presented wonderful performances which everyone enjoyed. Congratulations to all students and their teachers!

The following days, the students from different grades, especially junior high school, had competitions in Volleyball, Basketball, Football, Swimming and Track and Field where they competed against each other – everything for fun of course. Every student did a great job and gave its best for the team and had the chance to improve and discover their talents and skills. 

All in all, it was a really nice week again with a lot of fun and sports and we hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie


Please watch video performances below: 

Grade 7 
Grade 8 
Grade 9 
Grade 10

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal

[Week 18 Feb - 22 Feb 2019]

During the third week we already had something like a routine. In the morning we went to the classes and to the library and in the afternoon we read the stories for the little children.

But there was also something new in our schedule. After the regular classes of the students, the sponsored students had to stay another hour at school to write the letters for their sponsor. We started in grade one and continued every day with the next grade. All the students were really happy to draw and write some words for their sponsor.

We also joined the practices for the sports fest in March. So all the high schoolers had to practice during P.E and after the school for their cheer dance competition and even the ones from elementary school started to learn a dance which they are going to perform.

So it was another exciting week and we're looking forward to all the following weeks where we have the opportunity to work with Tapulanga Foundation and the St. Francis of Assisi school!


See you next week 👋
Franzi and Annie

Hello Silay City!

We, Annelie and Franziska, are two german girls who came as volunteers to the Philippines. We are now assigned in Tapulanga Foundation where we're going to stay until July 2019. In this blog we will write about the activities we did during our week in the school of Saint Francis of Assisi.

[weeks 04 Feb - 15 Feb 2019]

Our first workday was on Wednesday (06 Feb) after the Chinese New Year. The schedule is nearly every day the same:

•  The first three hours of the day we're joining grade 5 + 6 in the subjects English, Math and Science. During this time we assist the teacher and help the students with their exercises.
• Before lunch time we spent one hour to reorganize the library so the students have a better overview about the books the library is offering.
• At 1pm we start going to the daycare and the kindergarten where we're part of the story telling.

The only irregular day is Wednesday where we're the whole day assigned in the P.E classes of the high school.

So especially during the first days of our new work we started to observe everything, get to know everyone and try to remember their names.

In our second week everything was about the exams of the third quarter. Which means that all students had two exams on Wednesday, two exams on Friday and their performance task on Thursday. Due to this events we spend most of the time in the library where we can already see first progresses.

Moreover we had our first experiences reading some english stories in the kindergarten.
And there was also the day of Valentin which the students celebrated a bit eventhough they had their performance task this day. So thank you very much for all the presents, which were really cute, and belated happy Valentine's to everybody!

See you next week 👋
Franzi and Annie