Three months into 2021 and things have changed once again in the Philippines; specifically in the National Capital Region. After the slow easing of community quarantine protocols in January through to March, Metro Manila and its nearby regions have once again been put under a stricter lockdown in an ‘Enhanced Community Quarantine’. This means we are forced to halt our operations again in the Youth Center and ongoing activities at the Cafe.

Despite the unfortunate turn of events, we are still grateful we have so much good news to look back on this first quarter of the year. Watch this video as we share the highlights of the First Quarter of 2021.

Youth Center Donations

We are always thankful to be at the receiving end of the support and generosity of our partners and donors. This quarter, the Youth Center is now equipped with a new Canon Printer from April. This has been incredibly helpful in the printing of modules and schoolwork of our scholars for their online classes.

To add to that, we couldn’t be more grateful for the support of the Citizen of the World initiative of Teleperformance, the Youth Center is now equipped with additional brand new computers! Through this, we’ll be able to accommodate more scholars in our computer room for when they do their classes online, for tutorials, and for other workshops and trainings, as soon as the Youth Center operations return.

Sports Equipment Donations

Through the help of former Azkals Team Captain Rob Gier, the kids of Payatas FC also received sports equipment like jerseys and balls from the Women’s Team of Reading FC. Another set of sports equipment were also donated by Lauren Nerisse Samac-Bautista. The team is thrilled to use these donations as soon as it is safe to return to play and government guidelines permit here.

Staff Development

Among the things that kept us busy and productive in this quarter are the staff development meetings every weekend in our community hall. This time, we were able to conduct Drug Addiction and Adverse Childhood Experiences seminars for all of our staff.

To add to that, our scholars also participated in a Gender Equality Seminar this quarter.

Also, we’ve previously shared about the completion of the Online Video Editing Course of our Media Interns at the Creative Nation Academy. We couldn’t be more proud of their eagerness to learn and are excited to see them apply the skills they’ve acquired throughout this course.

Indeed, true to our values, here at Fairplay, we’re always eager to learn and improve.

This quarter, we also welcomed new faces to the team as we reinforce the manpower behind Fairplay! Our new interns Jovelyn and Leian have been incredibly helpful in the Admin and Finance Department. The Media Team also welcomed the addition of the new Creative Content Officer, Fatima, who helps produce different creative content materials, like this video above.

The Fairplay Cafe

The nanays at the Fairplay Cafe have also been practicing and developing their cooking skills as they share it to other mothers in the weekly cooking club that commenced this quarter.

Apart from that, they also ran the weekly Saturday Buffet at the Fairplay Cafe offering healthy takes on iconic Filipino dishes. Although it was cut short due to the changing lockdown guidelines, we’re proud to see our nanays level up their game week after week, receiving compliments from those who tried their dishes.

Payatas Sports Center Development

We’re also very proud to highlight the developments of the renovation of the Payatas Sports Center! We have not been able to play and do sports for more than a year now since the lockdown in the Philippines, but we can prepare for when we’re back. Through the help of our partners, we’ve done the overhauling of the roofing, ceiling and doors of the security house, extension of the bealchers area, rebuilding of the officials’ area, and the renovation of the comfort rooms, shower and wash area.

Big thanks to Thinking of Yves (TOY) for being the major sponsor of this project.

We’re also grateful for the support of Holcim Philippines and Mariwasa for their generous cement and tile donations. These helped in the renovation of the facilities inside the PSC.

Shoutout as well to the FairBuilding Network for connecting us to Holcim and Mariwasa and making these partnerships happen.

True enough, the previous quarter has been a rollercoaster. Despite the uncertainty of what is yet to come, we continue to be hopeful as we see everyone, both our staff and scholars, as well as our partners who have been exceedingly generous, give their best despite all the challenges we’ve weathered and will continue to weather together.