Culture

Jay-R Patron speaks with Mario Deriquito, director at Ayala Foundation

by jayr_patron | July 9, 2008 at 09:21 pm

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The mission: To connect more than 6,300 Philippine public high schools to the internet. Since 2005, more than 1,800 schools have been given access to the internet.

The problem: Geography and economy. In this archipelagic nation, some schools are so far-flung that connection to telecom lines would not be feasible and viable.

The solution: Wireless technology.

In this interview Mario Deriquito, director at Ayala Foundation, one of the country's largest non-profit organizations; and project director of Gearing-up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (GILAS), talks about his organization's aim of empowering Filipino students through providing them with access to the internet.

"When GILAS started in 2005, only about 40 percent of the public high schools have access to computers, and only about six percent had access to the internet," Deriquito said. "Because it was so big a problem, we thought a group like Ayala Foundation alone cannot do it by itself. So we decided to form a social consortium consisting of 23 companies to undertake this huge task--connecting all the public high schools to the internet."

History and culture tells that the Philippine society is able to rise from the quagmire… through collective action.

And Mario Deriquito, director of Ayala Foundation’s Center for Social Development, believes so.

“We have this capability to be heroes to each other, the capacity for collective heroism,” said Mario. “We have shown that in EDSA. We have shown that in projects like Gawad Kalinga and Habitat (for Humanity).”

What we need, he stated, is a vehicle to deliver or manifest the capacity to be one for others.

Mario’s involvement with the Ateneo Student Catholic Group throughout his college years opened his eyes to volunteerism and being involved in the community. Today, he is actively engaged in AFI as head of eight of its projects, one of which is the ICT education-veered consortium GILAS (Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students).