Painting pencils for kids with no pencils

Every year, we hear stories of schools in remote areas and urban public elementary schools that lack books, chairs and classrooms. Time and time again, the government has tried its best to address this by building more classrooms and pouring in more funds into the Education Department.

But there are still many children who lack even the most basic tools for learning—even pencils.

Traveling to different public elementary schools in the country in the last seven years, I have personally seen children divide pencils amongst themselves. In one particular school I visited in Surigao del Sur, they used charcoal to write with for a long time before help came in.

This year, we will try to change 700 lives by bringing 700 painted pencils to kids in different remote schools nationwide.

But first, you have to hear the story of how these pencils turned out to be as colorful as they are now.

Painting pencils

Over the last two Saturdays—in Luneta and in Quezon City Circle—advocacy group Black Pencil Project spearheaded an art workshop for a cause.

The activity, a component of DiksyonaryoAtbp's Summer Reading Camp this year, encouraged kid participants and volunteers to paint and design black and wooden pencils to be donated to other kids.

"We observed that children prefer colorful pencils to natural wood-finished pencils during an outreach so we thought, what if we asked kids in the city to paint it with designs or create pencil toppers to decorate?" said Mon Corpuz, the man behind Black Pencil Project.

At first, said Corpuz, he was hesitant about the project, wondering if urban-raised kids would have the heart for painting pencils and eventually donating them to kids less fortunate than them.

"We thought digital-savvy kids would find our activity baduy. In the beginning, children would want to paint pencils as souvenirs, but after sharing [with them] what we do and why we need to paint them, children voluntarily donated their masterpieces for charity," he said.

Aside from painting pencils with acrylic paint, others were designed using washi tapes.

Parents and volunteers alike were also eager to paint and design the pencils, knowing these would be donated to kids who need them most.

One parent said the activity was a good outlet for the kids to do their own little share in helping other children as well.

After two Saturdays' worth of activity and creativity, 700 colorful pencils designed by kids, volunteers and parents were collected.

Pencil advocacy

According to Corpuz, the Paint-A-Pencil project was first conducted in an Aeta community in Brgy. Labney in the town of Mayantoc, Tarlac.

Black Pencil Project annually delivers over 50,000 free pencils to its beneficiary communities nationwide since it began in 2008. But why pencils?

"I thought about the one thing that we could commit to contribute to the host community during travel, and the pencil was top of mind because it’s very light, and cost-efficient as well," said Corpuz.

The project is called Black Pencil because it started with them distributing only the big fat black pencils used by Kinder and Grade 1 pupils.

Little did Corpuz realize that his personal advocacy would soon gain ground and tremendous support.

"What we didn’t realize was that the black pencil was powerful because it reminds people of their childhood. Through social media, donations started to come until we got almost every little thing an elementary pupil would need to put in a bag," he said.

After every school year, Black Pencil goes around their partner communities again to collect whatever is left of the pencils as mementos.

From black pencils to colorful ones

While the group still delivers black pencils, it encourages children to actively participate in painting colorful pencils for other kids as well.

Personally, I feel the advocacy art workshop is a good way for children, especially those in urban areas like Metro Manila, to do their share for kids in less fortunate circumstances.

I personally witnessed kids enjoying painting and designing these pencils knowing these would not be tokens for them to bring home, but things that would make other kids happy. — BM, GMA News