Skwelanihan III Benefits Brgy. Malingin Pupils by James U. Sy Jr.

Recipients with some of the USLS volunteers during the Skwelanihan 3 on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City (MLYAC photo).

Student volunteers from the College of Business and Accountancy (CBA) and College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Councils of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) during the Skwelanihan 3 on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City (MLYAC photo).

Student volunteers from the College of Business and Accountancy (CBA) and College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Councils of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) during the Skwelanihan 3 on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City (MLYAC photo).

Some of the school supplies given out indigent pupils during the Skwelanihan 3 on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City (MLYAC photo).

Lester "Icy" Nonallada, Founder/President of the Malingin Leaders Youth Association for a Change (MLYAC), in tears for the success of Skwelanihan 3 on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City (MLYAC photo). A total of 400 or more elementary school pupils from grades 1 to 6 received a complete set of school supplies, including among others notebooks, pad paper, pens, pencils, erasers (and uniforms for selected pupils), during the Skwelanihan 3, which was presented by the Malingin Leaders Youth Association for a Change (MLYAC) under its Founder/President Lester "Icy" Nonallada with the College of Business and Accountancy (CBA) and College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Councils of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) as major partners on June 11, 2016 at the Jalsis Elementary school, Brgy. Malingin, Bago City. Skwelanihan is a contraction of the Tagalong words eskwelahan “school” and bayanihan “spirit of communal unity and cooperation” and when taken together, symbolizes the desire and effort to support students who have the dedication to pursue their education and by extension, their dreams in life. It is an annual civic project inaugurated in 2014 and conducted during the first week of June to give school supplies to indigent pupils in Brgy. Malingin. MLYAC goes around the 21 puroks of the barangay and qualify recipients. The first batch of beneficiaries in 2014 reached 150. MLYAC is also the proponent of the "Slippers for Hope" and "Disyembregalo" programs. Other sponsors of the project were KASADYA Bacolod Foundation, USLS-Integrated School Community Services, USLS Summer Hotties Batch 2015, Mt. Kanla-on Leo Club, friends of Nonallada, and other sponsors. Nonallada’s advocacy is actually a continuation of the work of his grandfather Luding Nonallada, who served as brgy. chairman for over a decade in Brgy. Malingin. Nonallada have experienced poverty himself and wanted to give back to his community by organizing this project. Brgy. Captain Janet Yasay with other barangay officials, Principal Ma. Dinah Pinky D. Tanajura, the SH & teachers of Jalsis Elementary School, and the recipients were all grateful to Nonallada and the MLYAC. Nonallada was in tears for the success of the project, “I’m so very overwhelmed by the city government of Bago for recognizing my project and considers me as a modern hero” (with inputs from Ritcheal Z. Lambating of the CBA Council, USLS).