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Saturday, October 20, 2018

Reading Advocacy: Masbate’s Tabang Kariton

The blog is featuring Tabang Kariton’s reading advocacy and book campaign programs in Masbate. Thank you to Mr. Jonathan Morano, teacher and radio show host, for agreeing to do this feature and guest post. Read on and discover the history and initiatives of Mr. Morano in building a community of reades in Masbate. 

Inspired by Efren Peńaflorida’s advocacy to offer alternative education to street children through his pushcart, Jonathan Morano launched his own project “Kariton Edukasyon” when he was still working as the principal of Liceo de Masbate in 2010. During that time, the Citizens’ Army Training was abolished, and instead of military instructions, he proposed that the students should render service through teaching good values to children of poor communities. They adopted Espinosa Elementary School at Brgy. Espinosa, Masbate City for their outreach program and the result was overwhelming since Mr. Morano had seen that both the volunteer students and the community benefitted from the different activities they organized.
Liceo de Masbate is a Catholic School and needless to say that the spiritual being of an individual is the school’s primary goal and this was indeed achieved when students realized that helping others was a way for them to become good Christians. It was also observed that they became socially aware of the fact that poverty affected the lives of young children such as of those who were recipients of the program.  But the realization that it made a big difference to children and the community was what really caught the attention of Mr. Morano. While watching how eager those children were, how the thought that someone cared for them made them smile, he had come to a realization that if only people would give time to help and somehow touch the lives of others, the world would become a better place to live in.
From then on, Mr. Morano envisioned a dream that to others might had been too large to fulfill. As a teacher, he realized that he was not building edifices of stone and cement but he was molding lives. As an individual, he started to believe that he had a responsibility to the society and be part of its desire to change for the better. As a Masbateńo, he should care. And so, instead of complying with a mere requirement of a syllabus, his ‘kariton’ continued its journey…



On August 18, 2012, he initiated “Tabang Kariton”- a community service project which its purpose was to reach out to the core of a person’s need to be assisted in terms of knowledge skills, moral and social consciousness. By then, he was already a teacher of Masbate National Comprehensive High School. He decided to change the project’s name since he wanted to bring it closer to the hearts of his fellow Masbateńos. ‘Tabang’ is a local term for help and up to this day the community service project offers programs such as; Dagdag Dunong for literacy, skills, health education and  values formation and Sumpay Kapalibutan for environmental awareness.
What makes “Tabang Kariton” stand out from among other known community service projects is it is initiated with the help of various partners both from government and private sectors.
The initiator believes in the goodness of a man’s heart and he has learned that everyone has his desire to help others but sometimes there are factors that prevent him from trying. For this, the initiator offers that person his chance. If the person has resources, particularly with financial capacity, yet has no time to organize an activity to share his good fortune, Mr. Morano would willingly step in and offer him a chance to become a partner of “Tabang Kariton”. On the other hand, if a person has without funds but is willing to offer his service to people, “Tabang Kariton” is always open for volunteers.
Tabang Kariton is a community service which offers the programs Dagdag Dunong (Literacy, Skills and Values Formation) and Sumpay Kapalibutan (Environmental Awareness)

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