Celebrate Mom’s 100th Birthday

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

My mother, Naty Abalos, celebrates her 100th Birthday on September 8^th.  What do you give a woman who has had a lifetime of wonderful blessings?  She is best known for supporting the education of family and community.

MOM’s GIFT:  For the past few years, Mom has raised funds for GILAS to provide Internet connection and teacher training for public high schools in her hometown, Oton, Iloilo, Philippines.  According to Ayala Foundation and Philippine Development Foundation USA (PhilDev), Oton is the only town in Iloilo with public high schools that are all hooked up to the internet.  Hurrah, Mama!

GILAS (Gearing Up Internet Literacy & Access for Students) is a multi-sectoral initiative headed by the Ayala Foundation that aims to provide Internet Access and basic Internet literacy programs to all 6,500+ public high schools in the Philippines.  PhilDev and the Ayala Foundation have worked with the GILAS consortium to connect over 3000 public high schools in the Philippines and now the Philippine Government has committed to connect the rest of the 3,500 high schools.  Mabuhay GILAS!

YOUR GIFT:  Mom is now committed to help the elementary schools in the Philippines thru “GILAS2” – Txt2Teach program.  Txt2Teach is a collaboration, led by the Ayala Foundation and companies under Ayala Corporation primarily Globe Telecoms, between the private and public sectors, and PhilDev in the US to help Grades 5 and 6 pupils learn better through some 400 educational video clips on English, Math and Science that can be downloaded via short messaging system (SMS), more popularly known as text messages.  Txt2Teach will undertake a review, revision, and enhancement of existing education materials used in the program; develop and produce new videos and teacher’s guides; train trainers and teachers using the Txt2Teach education materials.

Mom needs 100 donations of at least $25 to bring Txt2Teach to at least one elementary school in the Philippines.  Your donation will help provide a school with a tv set, mobile phones, 400 educational videos, lesson guides per videos, tech service, teacher training, monitoring and evaluation and more.  Over 500 elementary schools now have the Txt2Teach project – let’s bring Txt2Teach to a 100 more – 1000 more!  Please help Mom on her 100th Birthday give back by giving $25.00 or more to Txt2Teach!

You can send a check payable to: PhilDev. Please write Txt2Teach – NAbalos on the memo of your check.  Mail your gift to:

Natividad Abalos

1380 Riverside Drive, #11G

New York, NY 10033

You can also make your gift online at www.phildev.org Select Donate Now, Select For Credit Card, Select Donation For:  AFI-Txt2Teach.

CONTACT US:  Celebrate Mom’s 100th with a Txt2Teach gift.  If you are unable to donate at this time but would like more information about PhilDev and Txt2Teach, please email me at [email protected] or call at 347-767-8896.  Thank you!

Marilyn Abalos