Reinforcing its commitment to make a difference through programs that support Filipino children’s need for education, QSR giant McDonald’s Philippines through its charity of choice, Ronald McDonald House Charities, once again extends its support to schools for the annual Brigada Eskwela.

Led by the Department of Education (DepEd), Brigada Eskwela gathers volunteers from both the private and public sector every year to help prepare public elementary and secondary schools for the upcoming school year. Since 2015, McDonald’s and RMHC have been providing meals, cleaning materials, and Ronald McDonald Read-to-Learn kits to partner schools. 

This year, the company distributed over 20,000 Burger McDo to educators and volunteers, while 1,000 Happy Meal toys and 20 sets of Read-To-Learn kits were provided to elementary schools. These kits are part of RMHC’s Read-To-Learn program, a program in partnership with DepEd, which provides reading materials to Grade 1 and Grade 2 learners in public schools as well as trains educators on teaching beginning reading.

Grounded by its core value of malasakit, employee-volunteers from McDonald's also took time from their daily routine to help prepare and distribute meals, and clean school premises, to ensure that both students and teachers alike, can hold classes in a safe and conducive learning environment.

Meanwhile, the company also allocated streamers, welcome banners, and safety signages to over 4,000 schools, in an effort to ensure that government-mandated COVID-19 protocols are still being followed as face-to-face classes resume.

With the generosity of Filipinos, the support of partners, and the efforts of volunteers, RMHC can achieve more. Anyone can help share feel-good moments to those in need by donating at rmhc.org.ph/donate.  

SM shoppers can play Santa to less fortunate kids this Christmas in The SM Store and Toy Kingdom’s Share a Toy project, from November 1 to December 31, 2021.

They will be entitled to a P100 discount coupon for every item donated which can be redeemed on a minimum single-receipt purchase worth P1000. 

Through the Share A Toy campaign under the SM Share Movement, The SM Store and its loyal customers join together to celebrate this joyous season of giving and hope with a generous heart as a way of bringing smiles to children and sharing the happiness and hope to them even amid pandemic. Other SM Store also campaigns like Donate a Book and Share a Gift have received overwhelming support from customers.

Share A Toy purchases and donations are also valid in-store and Call To Deliver transactions. For more updates about the SM Share Movement and ways on how you could donate, visit www.thesmstore.com and follow its social media pages @thesmstore on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

PLDT's wireless arm, Smart Communications, Inc. has turned over Prepaid Home Wifi devices with load allocation to the local government of Mandaue City to provide fast and reliable connectivity for the rollout of its mobile vaccination clinic.

PLDT and Smart booths, which offer generous discounts for products, have also been set up in the nearby barangays to bring their services closer and more accessible to the public. This latest initiative reinforces PLDT and Smart’s value of malasakit, especially amid renewed community lockdowns.

“On behalf of Mandaue City LGU, we would like to express our deepest gratitude for your generous donation of Prepaid Home Wifi devices. Your donation would be of great help to us, especially this time of pandemic. Rest assured that your donation will be utilized in continuing our commitment to serving the public. Looking forward to your continued support and our partnership in the future,” said Hon. Mayor Jonas Cortes of Mandaue City.

“The Mobile Vaccination Clinic is an effective way to bring closer the vaccination efforts of the LGU to the Mandauehanons. Smart’s connectivity support to this program will help facilitate fast and seamless registration and reporting processes which will help enable the team onsite to cater to more residents. We hope that through these strengthened vaccination efforts, many will also do their part of getting vaccinated in order for us to achieve herd immunity,” says Marylou Gocotano, Manager, Smart Group Corporate Communications-VisMin.