Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Araw Unit plants seeds of hope in the Philippines

 
Araw unit, the joint support group for the Philippines, carried out a ceremony for rebuilding a teacher training center on May 19.

 
The ceremony was attended by the Philippines’ Education Minister, Armin A. Luistro, the vice minister, lieutenant governor of Leyte, the chief education officer and the TF chief of the Philippine Army, Yolanda.
 
The unit and the Philippine military engineers worked together to reconstruct the teacher training center. For the restoration of four buildings, the main building of the center, educational training center, and two dorms, the Araw unit and The Philippines employed 2,586 people and spent 84 million won on this project. This is the largest construction project the Araw unit has carried out so far.
 
A relevant unit official said that they restored educational facilities first to make miracles in The Philippines in the same way as Korea made today’s development through continuous investment and attention to education in its difficult past. The restoration of this teacher training center, too, is an extension of the first recovery of educational facilities. Local educators are expecting now to provide teachers with systematical educational training that had been interrupted and to have them grow quantitatively and qualitatively as well.
 
Education Minister Luistro expressed gratitude to the unit, saying that he thanked them for giving local educators in despair the courage and hope to stand up again after the typhoon damage. He also said that starting with the restoration of the center, he would plant seeds of hope to overcome any adversities in children’s minds by supporting systematic education and training teachers, expressing his strong will to make education in damaged area normal again.
 
The Araw unit has completed restoration work for 20 public facilities so far, and now is putting much spirit into returning city functions to normal through activities such as road wreckage removal, maintenance of sewers, telephone pole clearance, etc. Also, local residents are very responsive to resident-conscious activities the unit is running at the same time such as comprehensive medical support and the Hangul school and heavy-machine vocational school.

By Chul-Hwan, Kim < droid001@dema.mil.kr >
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