Reflections on our Class CSR Project

For our Lasallian Leadership Business class, our innovation was implementing a class project rather than a project per group. We decided to implement our CSR activity in Sta. Monica Elementary School in Hagonoy, Bulacan.  The school was severely affected by Typhoon Lando with floodwaters rushing inside the school compound and inundating its facilities.

We partnered with the school by proposing to implement the following activities:

1    Repainting some eighty school chairs and desks; and

2   Constructing an elevated concrete pathway from the entrance of the school towards the main building.

The second activity was especially requested by the school since during typhoons, students are unable to enter the flooded entrance of the school. With the construction of the pathway, a means of access was provided to ensure the safe entry and exit of all students and teachers during times of calamity.

For our fund raising activity, our group decided to sell t-shirts in the Lasallian colors of green and white, bearing the messages “The ends does not justify the means” and “Got ethics?” We sold these shirts primarily through our friends, classmates and colleagues at work and as such, our group was able to raised Php 9,730 as our contribution to the class pool of funds.

Two batches of students undertook the activity; the first batch went on November 22. 2015 and the succeeding batch went on the following week, November 29, 2015.

The following were the issues that arose during implementation of the CSR project:

1.    Administrative issues

-       Who will procure the supplies for the project

-       Division of labor during implementation of the CSR activity

2.    Substantive issues

-       How to ensure completion of the project within the given time frame

-       How to apply the learnings in class to this activity

I am pleased to report that a class project has a higher impact to the partner community as compared to a group project. This is because as a class we were able to raise a larger amount of funds and as such was able to implement a more complex project i.e. the pathway construction. All students actively participated and it is noteworthy that there were no freeloaders; all of us were hard at work to ensure the project’s successful completion.

It is fitting that we undertook a CSR project to help improve a school’s facilities. St. Lasalle was a teacher who was known for being an innovator and a servant-mentor, among others. As Lasallian business leaders, a CSR project such as this reminded us that it is our responsibility to help especially those who are in need and to be part of the solution for the various problems that our country is facing.