On 18 December, the SM Foundation and SM Prime handed over a newly built two-story school building to Sta. Barbara Central Elementary School in Zamboanga City, which was severely damaged during the 2013 Zamboanga siege.

School principal Anna Liza Martin said all three of the school's multi-story buildings were destroyed during the siege, with classrooms rendered unusable as insurgents took control of the campus.

The disruption led to lost school hours and forced students to relocate to other schools to continue their education. Head teacher Alice Yusop recalled how overcrowded host schools made learning difficult and how the trauma from the attacks, including explosions near makeshift classrooms, impacted students' mental well-being.

“I remember one specific instance when, in one of our makeshift classrooms in a host campus, there was an explosion, but it was just an electric fuse box. I remember how the learners ran scared and crying. That was the toll on them. It was not only about losing school days, but it was also about their mental health,” she says.

Martin recalls how the school’s recovery was a very hard and long process.

Going back to the campus after the month-long attacks, they found almost nothing to build from and the memories of the attacks scattered all around them.

“It took more than five years for us to rebuild Sta. Barbara Central School,” she says.

Fresh start, new hope

More than a decade later, the SM Foundation's donation of a new four-classroom building offers a fresh start for nearly 3,000 students. The building is equipped with electric fans, toilets, and PWD-friendly facilities, along with a clinic, mini library, and arts room. It will be used by Grade 2 and Kindergarten students.

“The opening of this school building indeed showed the learners that we can have a new start, that there are still sponsors who are willing to help pave the way so that they can have a brighter future despite what happened in the past,” said parent Nidznalyn Kasim.

SMFI executive director for education programs Carmen Linda Atayde, in her speech during the turnover ceremony, says that it is the 109th school building that was donated by the foundation to schools all over the country. This is the second school building built by the foundation in Zamboanga.

The SM Foundation has been supporting educational recovery nationwide through the Adopt-a-School Program since 2002, contributing more than 100 school buildings to communities across the Philippines.