ZARBETH Baldonado stopped going to school back in 2008 after graduating from high school due to lack of financial resources.
But in 2015, Baldonado was able to go back to school and pursue her tertiary education after she qualified as a scholar of the Alay Lakad Foundation in the City of San Fernando.
Currently enrolled as a fourth year student taking up Bachelor of Science in Social Work at the Don Honorio Ventura State University, Baldonado said she owes her impending graduation to the foundation, which trusted her to be one of its beneficiaries.
"I feel so blessed to be trusted with this kind of opportunity by the people behind the Alay Lakad Foundation and also the City Government. It isn't their responsibility to help, but their passion to bring second chances to people like us makes a whole lot of difference to us beneficiaries and to our families," the 27-year-old Fernandina said.
Baldonado is just among the hundreds of out-of-school (OSY) youth assisted by the Alay Lakad Foundation for the past 20 years, according to its president Ruben Sy.
"We have already a total of 900 scholars who graduated in the past two decades through the help of our partners from the business sector and kind-hearted individuals who shelled out different amounts of money to help send needy Fernandinos to school," he said.
For this school year, Sy said the foundation is assisting some 30 indigent students who are enrolled in different colleges and universities in the region and Metro Manila.
Each scholar receives P1,500 per month, or a total of P15,000 for the whole school year, Sy said.
"We need to raise at least P450,000 to sustain our financial assistance to our 30 scholars and we are hopeful that our friends, partners and fellow Fernandinos and Kapampangans will be able to help us," he said.
This year, the foundation set the annual Alay Lakad activity on November 15, wherein they are targeting to gather about 10,000 individuals who share the same passion of helping.
The foundation will also be distributing coin banks to partner-establishments where interested individuals can drop their donations.
"Even a peso will go a long way in helping these children and their families uplift their lives from poverty," Sy said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Edwin Santiago assured anew that the City Government will be providing the same amount raised by the foundation as its counterpart.
He also lauded the Alay Lakad Foundation officers and members for successfully sustaining the organizations for the past years.
"The Alay Lakad Foundation in San Fernando is among the few ones in the country that remained active up to this day and we can only credit its members and officers, who are all coming from the private sector, for that," he said.
He noted that the Alay Lakad Foundation is a testament to the strong partnership between the private and public sector developed in the country over the years.