ALABEL, Sarangani -- These volunteers believe in one thing: It takes a community to raise a child. With this, Sarangani hopes to have them more.

Seventy-five volunteer teachers and youth leaders attend a two-day workshop on April 17-18 at the Kasfala Hall, Capitol Complex organized by Smart Communications Inc. (Smart), Silid Aralan Incorporated (SAI), and Alcantara Foundation Incorporated.

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The volunteer teachers came from the province's seven towns. School heads from Maitum town, Sarangani's farthest municipality, also attended the workshop. They plan to conduct a re-echo seminar-workshop to their teachers back to their respective schools.

"This is our conscious effort of strengthening community involvement in enhancing the learning capability of Filipino children in public schools," Smart's public affairs officer for Mindanao Haydee Bernabe said.

This summer, Sarangani Big Brother (SBB), a reading mentoring initiative by the Sangguniang Kabataan Provincial Federation together with Alcantara Foundation Inc., will have its second batch of "Reading is Fun" project for incoming Grade III pupils.

The two-day workshop aims to invite more volunteers as big brothers and sisters (kuyas and ates) for SBB. It also hopes to encourage public school teachers in Sarangani and General Santos City to implement remedial reading not just during summer but throughout the school year. Smart partners with SBB and SAI through its Read-to-be-Smart Program.

Last summer, more than 600 volunteered for SBB which benefited more than 2,000 pupils who improved their reading skills for free.

"I want to learn more on how to effectively teach our children and at the same time make them enjoy learning," Youth Community Service Club (YCSC) member Kathleen Opong said. Kathleen is a teacher by profession and a six-year member of the YCSC.

Along with Kathleen are six other active members of the club.

"I feel the passion of really helping our children acquire better education in my own little way," Kathleen said.

"It's not just story telling but also story writing so that the learners will be more interested and enjoy more the learning process," SAI founder and team head Arcie Mallari said.

"The Silid Aralan Learning Technology (Salt) empowers children as they gain knowledge regardless of individual differences," he added.

"It has integrative methods that understand the unique intelligences. Moreover, it taps potentials that establish, then reinforce the child's progressive learning ability," Mallari explained.

Mallari said volunteers will come up with reading texts, which they feel the learners can relate better because of their social contexts.

"One of our main problems in teaching is reading comprehension," teacher Florita Rosco said. "My Grade 3 pupils know how to read but they don't usually understand what they are reading."

"Our educational curriculum always looks at the learning needs of our children," said Elizabeth Torres, division office coordinator for Elementary English Department of the Department of Education in Sarangani.

"We are very thankful for the assistance provided to us by our partners in education that would address these needs," she said.