Teacher on Center Stage: Teacher Anna Bacudio and the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center (2 of 2)

Teacher Ana Bacudio shares with us the miracles and generosity of strangers she met who helped her feed and teach the children of Dagdag Dunong Reading Center.

Here are the top three amazing stories that I would like to share about Dagdag Dunong Center.

Amazing Story 1 - There was  a time that the Cultural Center of the Philippines invited us to watch the play " Sandosenang Sapatos " by Luis Gatmaitan, where I brought 50 street children. This was part of our educational field trip called "Matuto sa Lakwatsa". One of the children was a polio victim carried by another child on his back because he doesn't have a wheel chair. Another child has Down Syndrome and I asked his mother to accompany him. I asked all of the children and the carers to wear red shirt so that I can easily locate them as CCP is big. 

Some of my children do not wear shoes, most of them wear slippers only. As we are falling in line at the back of the door entrance (paying clients will enter the theatre first, we have complimentary tickets only) a man approached us and asked me if we are an orphanage. I told him that we are from the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in Singalong and we are invited by CCP to watch the play for free. I even told him that I am shy because some of my children do not wear shoes as they are poor and their parents can't afford to buy new shoes for them. The others who wear shoes have worn out shoes just like the smallest girl in front of the line who kept fixing her shoes because its strap was broken. The man looked at the children intently and suddenly he told me to give him a list of the children with their corresponding shoe sizes and he will buy shoes for all of them. I told my carer- assistants about that and the children were so intelligent that they know exactly their shoe size. Within five minutes, the list was complete and I handed the list to the man together with my address and contact details.

We are still in the line when the man approached me again and asked where are we going after watching the show which will end by 12nn. I told him that we will go home and I will cook rice for them at home as we don't have budget for fast foods.

The man said that he has bought and reserved 60 chicken joy meals at the Jolibee food store just across CCP for all of us. The children were so happy upon learning that and they enjoyed the play as well as the Jolibee meals. We arrived at the reading center at 2 pm and we rested and by 4pm, a child came to me saying that the man has arrived with the 50 pairs of shoes. 

The children were so happy. Indeed God is kind and merciful.

Building the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in Oriental Mindoro is building a community of readers too.

Amazing Story 2 - The Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in Manila became a site where miracles do happen, because of the children's prayers and their mere presence.

It was December and the Lectors Commentators Group of Saint Anthony of Padua Parish, the parish organization where I belong, planned an early Christmas party. They asked Php 250 from each member as contribution for the foods and prizes for the games. I said that I am very sorry that I cannot attend the said party as I will use the 250 to buy 4 kilos of rice and chicken tinola to feed the hungry children of Dagdag Dunong as the start of our 6 months feeding program started within the same week. We have used the 250 pesos as the seed money to start our feeding program for around 30 hungry street children of Manila. The children prayed grace and enjoyed the rice and tinola on that day. 

The next day, somebody  messaged me and said that his friend will help our reading center. We met his friend named Sir Gani at Greenbelt Makati and after having coffee with him, he introduced us to his friends who are also Singaporean Muslims like him. We brought him to the reading center and he asked me what do we need at the center. I answered him that we need rice, meat or chicken to feed the children. We need chairs and tables and bookshelves too. He said that we will go to the rice store after asking me how many kilos do we need to cook per day to feed all the hungry children I answered him that we need 5 kilos a day and he bought 20 sacks of rice which will last for 6-8 months of feeding program. 

We were surprised but were so happy for his generosity.

Our next stop was the furniture store where he bought 30 pcs. of monoblock chairs and 5 kiddie tables. He said that he wants to see the children and told me to bring 100 children to Jolibee on Sunday. On that Sunday, 100 children enjoyed their Jolibee meals together with their three Kuya’s who have shared their blessings with the least fortunate.

God has multiplied the four kilos of rice and one half chicken just like what He did when He multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fishes to feed the 5000 men in the bible. 

Anna and husband Virgilio smile with members of the community in Baco, Oriental Mindoro
building the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center.

Amazing Story 3 - As a Pinoy Reading Buddies volunteer, trainor and facilitator, my husband and I travel to far flung areas where we are needed to conduct the free workshop on how to engage young readers among public school teachers and librarians. We do not choose the places where we will go. We just obey where God sent us to teach and be a witness of God’s love to Dagdag Dunong.

It is the month of November, in 2016, when my second daughter was scheduled to take the Bar Examination. The children of Dagdag Dunong were praying for her to pass too. We were in Manila on the first Sunday of the Bar exam and we accompanied my daughter to UST at 6 am and fetch her at 6 pm after the examination. But on the second Sunday, we were scheduled to conduct the reading workshop at Central Mindanao University in Bukidnon and on the 3rd Sunday in West Visayas State University in Iloilo. I requested my sister to attend to the needs of my daughter like cooking her meals and baon as well as accompanying her to UST for the 

We went to Mindanao and Iloilo to conduct the reading workshops,  heeding the tasks entrusted to us by God. This was against the will of my daughter, but we told her that we are doing that as our work of mercy and prayer, begging God to bestow on her the knowledge needed to answer her bar examinations well.

When we returned to Manila we again accompanied her on the last Sunday of  the bar examination and attended to all her needs, food, comfort and prayers too. And she passed the bar examination indeed in May of 2017. 

Teacher on Center Stage: Ana Maria Acevedo Bacudio (Part 1 of 2)

In my trip to Mindoro Oriental last month for a teacher training workshop there, I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people in the teaching profession and in the advocacy for books and reading. One of them is Mrs. Ana Maria Acevedo Bacudio. She is a medical technologist, teacher, researcher, storyteller, poet, translator, proclaimer of God’s word, mother, wife and Project Leader-Storyteller of Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in Poblacion, Baco, Oriental Mindoro.

This is her story.

What led you to the teaching profession and the advocacy for books and reading?

I am A Medical Technologist by profession, having worked at the Manila Health Department Public Health Laboratory for 27 years, I have reached the peak of my career. I rose from the rank and was awarded as Model Medical Technologist in 1995, I have done various researches on Tuberculosis and have presented them in different countries like Japan, Singapore, Berlin, Paris, Italy and USA. The turning point in my life is when God called  me to teach the street children of our community in Singalong Manila.

That was in 2006, when I was still working as Medical Technologist from Monday to Friday and my Saturdays and Sundays were intended for the street children. We started our Read along and storytelling activities in Oct 2006 at the garage of our house in Singalong Manila. When I saw the children’s faces yearning for stories, I realised that I must teach them how to read and that was the start of the Dagdag Dunong Project. We have only a few books, preloved by my daughter and I bought some storybooks. I did not only teach the children how to read but also how to pray. I feel like children too when I am with the street children. I laugh like they did, play, pray  and read with them too. When I retired from government service in 2014, I shifted to teaching as my secondary profession. I handle and teach all major board based subjects of BS Medical Technology at Centro Escolar University in Mendiola, College of the Holy Spirit Manila and Family Clinic Inc.

Ana Bacudio with Mangyan chidlren in Baco, Oriental Mindoro

In teaching college students, I have shared the knowledge, skills and experiences that I have gained as Medical Technologist and  it is rewarding and joyful experience when I see them pass the board examination and practice their profession. I am paid for teaching them.

Whenever I  teach  the street children who are all smelly and lice infested, I feel so happy and fulfilled  when I see them smile and hug me after reading them stories, much more when I teach them  the rosary, grace before meals and prayer to their guardian angel. Everything that the children asked in prayers, the Lord provides. Teaching the street children how to read, pray and become God fearing earned me several awards like Outstanding Women Leader in Manila in 2008, Talk and Text Tipid Sulit Idol in Education 2010, Humanitarian and Apostolic Service, Outstanding Alumni of the College of the Holy Spirit Manila 2013. But even without these awards I will still continue to teach because it is  my calling and my way of worshipping God.

How did you start building the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in San Andres, Manila?

Together with my husband, we founded and established the Dagdag Dunong Reading Center a non-profit, non-government purely voluntary organization with  permanent address at 1191 Arellano Street, Singalong, Malate, Manila 

Our Vision: A community with children who are knowledgeable,  loves to read, with excellent reading comprehension, verbal  and listening skills and who have access to a Reading Center equipped with good quality reading materials.

Our Mission: To promote literacy through reading advocacy and other relevant educational activities and to establish a Reading Center which will cater to poor children of Manila.

Teacher Ana Bacudio, reading aloud to children

Here are the milestones of our humble beginnings:

• October 2006 - a poet friend conducted the first storytelling in our garage
• More children have come so conduct storytelling every Saturday afternoons in the garage of our house 
• November 2006 - my daughter Aina joined the Alitaptap Storytelling competition at the National Library
• Applied the Read First and Say Techniques in all our storytelling sessions 
• February 2007 - our 1st Matuto sa Lakwatsa (Educational Field Trip) was conducted at Marikina City and continued annually up to the present 
• June 2007 - 30 children attended the PDI Read Along with Michaela Fudolig as the Storyteller  and continued up to 2011
• January 21, 2012 - Dagdag Dunong was featured on ABS-CBN 2, Ako ang Simula, Happy Libro
• January 2012 - formal opening of the Reading Center at Arellano St Singalong Manila 
• May 2012 - 1st  Reading Camp was conducted at Hangin Garden,Tagaytay 
• May  2012 - launched PROJECT RAM  Read Along with the Mangyans of Sitio Paraiso, Dulangan 2, Baco Oriental Mindoro
• May 2015 - started as volunteer trainor facilitator of Pinoy Reading Buddies Workshop on how to engage young readers, have conducted workshops to around 1500 teachers in NCR, Palawan, Iloilo, Bukidnon, Negros Occidental, Sorsogon, Batangas, Puerto Galera,Baco, San Teodoro and Mansalay all in Oriental Mindoro
• December 2015 - typhoon Nona damaged the books and flooded the  Dagdag Dunong Reading Center 
• May 2016 - Rolling of the Mobile Library Jeepney of Hope to reach remote barangays of Mindoro where the Mangyan children live
• At present we have started the construction of the flood proof and typhoon proof Dagdag Dunong Reading Center in Baco, Oriental Mindoro 

In part two of the blog interview, Ana Bacudio shares with us her dreams for the future of the children in Baco, Oriental Mindoro and the current Dagdag Dunong Center being built in the area.

Love a Library: A Public Library Grows in Oriental Mindoro

To start this week's Love a Library blog feature, Bernadette Wolf shares the story of the public library in Mindoro that she set up with the big help of Michael Wolf, her husband.Michael is a telecom engineer and Bernadette is an artists and illustrator for children's books.

a. What inspired you to set up a library in Mindoro? .

Mahabang kuwento iyan, Zarah, with us. In a way, we got involved first with the illegal logging issues here and then for so many months and years, my husband and I were discussing why the folks here are just plain ignorant about the consequences of their actions. We found out by observation and talking with the locals that ignorance, poverty and corruption (in all aspect of the word..not just political) were the main factors. And so, we went for the schools and education facilities here and thus we found out that there was just no library (for adults) to speak of in Puerto Galera.


When I was single, whenever i would go to the different provinces, there would be two things i would check out: the public market and the public library...or even the local komiks stand! Call it an idiosyncracy but that's how I learn about the place and that's also how I know that public libraries in the Philippines are usually considered at the bottom priority of the LGUs.



Going back to Puerto Galera, on my first year of living together with my husband, I just had finished an environmental children's book for Palawan and I wanted to present it to the mayor as my token of environmental awareness to the community. We had made a call of course and then I could see that the mayor did not know what to do with it. You see, illegal logging was rampant in our area since we live near the rainforest. And that was our (my husband and mine) way of saying we're environmentalists too. But the mayor then was not biting and had other "priorities." Only when there was a change of administration (last 2006) did we try to check out the aura of the next mayor. And since he was "new' to the position, we found him more open to the idea of setting up a public library. To make it more cohesive and cost-efficient with his government platform, he also established the TESDA here and so with this, the public library can be its educational arm.

b. How did you go about setting this up? Who helped you make it a reality?

Another long story but an interesting one. I was then very active with a blog named "Wish You were here" by a guy who called himself Senor Enrique (Eric Isaac) and he would post about his researches about Manila (of which he is active in its preservation) and one such post was about a library near the UST (of which I forgot the name). Eric was actually getting his "loyal" commenters to donate books for it. I really do not recall how I got into the picture myself also but then I got some pledges from other commenters that they would send books to Puerto Galera too! Hahaha! I told myself, "Hey! this is the Internet so I'll see how serious or real they are!"


And the first HEAVY balikbayan box did come---from a Pinoy in Australia ( Mario Baylon)! He gave two sets of encyclopedia (Britannica!), medical books, childrens' craft books etc. It weighed a TON! But, that pushed us to say "naku, this is for real!" But, we still had to wait for the room for another year so the books had to be stored in the municipal office first. Ironically, the people who really initially helped set up the library were friends (both personally mine from Manila and cyber-ly known.) Other worthwhile people to mention was Ms. Minotte Cuenca of California (also via cyberspace---Candlelight Books) and Robert Alejandro of Manila who just posted via facebook!

But without the present mayor Hubert Dolor's support, it wouldn't also have had become a reality, of course. Other book and knowledge-loving people here eventually threw in their support---a Danish Foundation hereabouts gave support with the computers and Internet to go hand in hand with the book inventory. But the legwork was done by my husband, Michael actually. Without him managing the details like solicitations, library set-up (electrical, painting, structural, etc.) I really do not know how it could have been managed since everyone did not really want to "dirty" their fingers so to speak. Yet, you can see that it really is an effort of many people together.

c. How is it being maintained? Is sustainability part of your project? Or does it end with provision of library materials and turn-over?

It was when we finished with the setting up of the place (computers, books, cabinets, a door :-D as well as others) then we informally gave the keys to the mayor. And that was that. Good-bye. Hope they value it. We (my husband and I) just wanted to get the ball rolling.


As of now, I know that there is an educational officer (also in charage of the TESDA) manning the library. He had made it his office as well since there is no budget for a full-time librarian. And because of the (5) computers with Internet/Wi-Fi capabilities, it has become a hub for also the municipal departments' information. I also found out late last year, that the library will be given a bigger room this year...and with this more bookshelves and computers yata.

d. What are your future plans for the library and the community it serves?

As I have earlier answered, our setting up the public library was culled out of a personal intiative. Maybe we were to "pushy" and too "professional" being "outsiders" and not of the laid-back and come-what-may attitude of the people here, so we had our share of negative comments and innuendos of hidden agendas. We have been cajoled into forming an NGO but that is not our "cup of tea" so to speak even as we (especially my husband) still stay "unofficial" guardian of the nearby rainforest. So, we could only wish that the Purto Galera Public Library florish and that a continual flow of support and usage go with it!


As of present too, I was told that the teachers taking their masterals are borrowing the books that we had placed there---and boy! I would sure want them for my own collection! But that the teachers and some students are starting to pay a yearly fee of P20 (includes a library ID card) is a very encouraging sign!


e. Any partners and donors you would like to thank?



Our partner in the public library initiative is a Danish Foundation named DanPhil School Aid with Mr. Willy Stellander as representative in Puerto Galera and perhaps the whole of Oriental Mindoro.  they had provided the 5 computers as well as sponsored a year-long Internet service for the room.  That is as far as I know.  Their website is : http://danphil-schoolaid.org/DPSA-EN/DPSA-EN/Welcome.html


I have really to thank the generosity and kind hearts of the people (who i had mentioned earlier). Their selflessness is my personal validation of what purity of intent is! I know that all they ask is that the books be used and spread around. No credits nor plaques were asked at all..and that made me think, why should I grumble when instead of a grand parade of appreciation, all my husband and I could count on was treat ourselves to pizza and the left-over sandwiches we gave out when we gave the keys to the mayor and his staff. I am not just thankful but also in awe at what had happened in setting up this library, and that means God wanted it to happen actually.


Thanks, Zarah! More power to librarians and book-lovers wherever you all are!!!