A week spent in prepping up the school grounds and classrooms and helping the teachers of various schools in Davao del Norte is definitely far from Katherine’s usual office routine.  But her involvement in this year’s Brigada Eskwela made it a fulfilling week as a government intern of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Katherine A. Morial cleaned the grounds and repainted the classroom walls and chairs of the Esperanza Elementary School in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte. “I really gave my best in helping the school because aside from it being my alma mater, I am also doing this for the benefit of the school children,” she said.

Anna Jucelle S. Marcito also shared Morial’s sentiments. “As GIP, we train in office works but this is another way of learning. We help not only because we are paid but we are encouraged to help the youth in our community. We are thankful for this chance to become a valuable youth in our society by extending our hands to the next generation.”

Marcito and Morial are just among the 325 government interns of Davao del Norte under the DOLE’s Government Internship Program (GIP) who participated in the Department of Education (DepEd)’s  Annual National Maintenance Week or Brigada Eskwela last May 18 to 23, 2015.

GIP interns were deployed into different elementary and secondary schools in the province to help the parents and teachers beautify the school grounds. The interns were engaged in repainting and renovating rooms, fixing and restoring school facilities, among others.

The GIPs were deployed to provide services to Esperanza Elementary School, Buenavista Elementary School, NAFCO Central Elementary School, Tuganay Elementary School, Doña Nenita R. Floirendo Elementary School, Kiotoy Elementary School, Sto. Niño Elementary School, Balagunan Elementary School, New Katipunan Elementary School, Tanglaw National High School, and Balagunan National High School.

“This is our contribution to the development and for the education of the children.” Marcito said.

Katherine, just like other interns, was as fulfilled as the pupils and students as they began their classes with new classrooms and learning-conducive surroundings. (DOLE XI)