Iloilo City public high schools
now connected to the Internet

THE YOUNG students of Iloilo City in the Philippines can now link up with the rest of the world! Seven of the city's public high schools were the recent recipient of computer laboratories with Internet connection under the GILAS project.

What is GILAS?

GILAS, which stands for Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students, is a multi-sectoral project that aims to connect the more than 5,500 public high schools in the Philippines to the Internet within the next five years. GILAS addresses the concern of the lack of access to current and new information among Filipino students that make them inferior to other students in neighboring countries. With the Internet, the Filipino youth, particularly those in the public schools, are given the opportunity to bridge the education gap by having access to the vast resources readily available on the Internet. To date, 802 public high schools are connected to the Internet, benefiting at least 350,000 Filipino high school students. In Iloilo City alone, around 5,000 students and 40 teachers now enjoy the educational benefits of the Internet.

Public-private sector: working together

The success in connecting the 10 public high schools in Iloilo City was made possible through the collaboration between the local government and the private sector. The local government led by Mayor Jerry Trenas, who was also one of the first advocates of GILAS, provided P1.2 million ($ 24,000.00) while counterpart funding came from generous donors. Donors include US-based, Filipino-owned Seafood City Supermarket, the Luz family, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, corporate executive Rex Drilon, Mario Jalandoni and Swiss couple Lisa and Roland Amman, among others. Innove communications, on the other hand, provided the telephone lines and Internet connection to all the recipient public high schools.

Mayor Trenas and the residents of Iloilo City were so grateful to Swiss couple Lisa and Roland Amman, who despite being non-Filipinos, have generously helped provide Internet access to the city's public schools. As a token of their gratitude, Mayor Trenas granted an Executive Order adopting Roland and Lisa Amman as children of Iloilo City.

Ayala Foundation director Mario Deriquito led the formal turnover of computer and Internet facilities to Mayor Trenas held at the Fort San Pedro National High School. In the turnover, Mayor Trenas expressed his gratitude to the GILAS consortium and promised to expand the project in his city by donating more computers and likewise enhance training of teachers. Mr. Deriquito, in behalf of GILAS, encouraged the students to maximize use of the Internet facility, challenged the local school board and Department of Education to ensure that students perform better and urged the residents to help sustain the GILAS project in their community.

Support GILAS! To know more about the project, please visit www.gilas.org. Donations from the US are tax deductible through Ayala Foundation USA, a 501(c)3 public charity. Visit www.af-usa.org.