MANILA – In February 2008, thousands of students greeted Manitoba Premier Gary Doer at a ceremony to announce the donation of $10,000 to help build two new classrooms at Jose Rizal Elementary School on Tayuman Street in Tondo, Manila. The donation to the school included funding from both the provincial government and the Philippine Association of Manitoba’s Donate-a-Classroom project.

In a ceremony on December 10, 2008, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who also provided personal support to the project, officially opened the new classrooms.

“I want to congratulate Manitoba’s Filipino community, Mayor Lim, school officials and the embassy for all their hard work in bringing this effort to completion,” said Premier Gary Doer in a recent press release. “Our Filipino community thought this project would be a great way to demonstrate our friendship with the Philippines and we couldn’t agree more. I am pleased to see the new classrooms are opening for learning.”

The facilities, which are located prominently adjacent the central courtyard area of the school, are now set up as dedicated computer lab and a classroom for journalism.

The Canadian Embassy in Manila provided 15 fully working computers through the Government of Canada’s Computers for Schools program. It was the first time computers have been made available to the students.