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On November 14, the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines formally handed over a total of nine new classrooms to the Leuteboro National High School in the Municipality of Socorro, Oriental Mindoro.

First Secretary Kanno Chihiro of the Embassy of Japan led the ceremonial turnover, together with Socorro Mayor Nemmen Perez and other LGU officials.

Funded through the Grant Assistance for Grass-Roots Human Security Projects (GGP), as part of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), “The Project for Construction of Classrooms for Leuteboro National High School in Socorro, Oriental Mindoro” aimed to address the issue of classroom shortage of the public high school.

The significant increase of enrollees in recent years resulted in the shortage of classrooms available to students. The school had to split classes into shorter sessions and use temporary makeshift classrooms in the gymnasium and offices. With such strategy, however, the provision of a safe and conducive learning environment for the students was compromised.

To address their concerns, the Embassy of Japan provided a grant amount of $180,602 or approximately P 9.1 million to the Municipal Government of Socorro. The grant covered the construction of a one-storey, four classroom building and a one-storey, five classroom building.

During the ceremony, Chihiro shared his excitement in seeing the smiling faces of students as they return to their new and safer classrooms. He expressed his hope that these classrooms will enable the students to have better learning experiences to further develop their skills and potentials.

As the top ODA donor for the Philippines, the Government of Japan launched the GGP scheme in the Philippines in 1989 to reduce poverty and help various communities engage in grassroots activities.

At present, 553 grassroots projects have been implemented by the GGP. Japan believes that these projects will strengthen the friendship between Japan and the Philippines and contribute to sustaining strategic partnerships between the two countries. Japan Information and Culture Center