Global publisher Scholastic Asia taps Mayani to extend aid, supports community library for Baseco

The world’s largest children books publisher Scholastic Asia has launched Project Aklat at Pangarap with agriculture marketplace Mayani to provide relief assistance and push community literary among the children of 196 indigent families affected by a massive fire breakout in Barangay 649, Baseco. 

Core to the initiative is utilizing Mayani’s community campaigns expertise and its platform for the online giving of food packs sourced from local farmers, after which free books were donated by Scholastic Asia upon meeting the total target food donations. 

The endeavor also drew the support of volunteer group No One Left Out, outdoor advertiser HDI, and Sto. Nino De Baseco Parish, who led the on-ground relief distribution.

“As Scholastic celebrates its 100 years, it’s in our roadmap to strengthen initiatives that will promote learning and reading. We’re active in partnering with organizations with the same goals as ours when it comes to giving back to the community. Every Filipino child should be able to be given a chance to strengthen their love for learning and eventually live a life that they've built for themselves in the future. We are happy that Mayani sees this eye to eye with us.” ~Jane Tiongco-Aguirre, General Manager for the Philippines of Scholastic Asia

Scholastic is known to be the publisher of the children’s favorites Harry Potter and Clifford the Big Red Dog. They are an active partner of schools in the Philippines in strengthening student reading proficiency through their word class and effective Literacy Program, Prime English and their remarkable numeracy program, Prime Math.

“One of our platform’s broadened use cases is empowering our customers to give back to causes that they personally care about. As an impact-driven organization, we open our platform for a multitude of partners to anchor their social drives on and tap other value points in our ecosystem.” ~JT Solis, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mayani

Over one metric ton of fresh produce and chicken, as well as 500 books and technology-enabled learning materials have been donated via the project. The books have been turned over already to the Baseco children’s community – an effort that will complement their alternative learning programs.

The campaign was also given boosting by Mayani’s billboard collaborator HDI. 

“We truly value education and holds this strong belief of promoting grassroots literacy as a top priorty.” ~Raoul Buencuchillo, HDI Adventures’ President

Caritas Manila taps tech for good platforms Mayani, GrabPay to foster online giving for underprivileged youth

 

(Mayani) Tuloy Aral with Caritas  Manila, Grab, Pilipinas Shell Foundation

In the context of the ongoing pandemic that has brought more families deeper into poverty, digital platforms have been repurposed to leverage their reach and scalable capacities to soften the economic downturn’s impact on the poor and the vulnerable.

Carrying this impact thrust, Caritas Manila – the lead social service ministry of the Catholic Church in the Philippines – is co-launching the Tuloy Aral Project to support the food needs of over 5,000 youth scholars from the poorest communities in the country, while supporting the livelihood of rural smallholder farmers through technology. 

Also spearheading the project is GrabPay, the leading e-wallet of super-app Grab, and Mayani, an impact-driven ag-ecommerce platform with over 28,000 smallholder farmers, including the Pililia farmers of the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc (PSFI).

“For the past 60 years, Caritas Manila has been actively shaping total human development and assisting the needs of the unfortunate members of our society through mission-driven partnerships. This project firmly complements our Youth Servant Leadership & Education Program (YSLEP), while concurrently extending our alleviation outcomes to our local farmers by sourcing the donated food packs from them.” ~Fr. Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila

YSLEP, which covers the children of the displaced workers due to the pandemic, aims to put them through college and technical vocation education, while giving them necessary means and basic support like food as they complete their schooling.

“While technology is the core enabling engine for mobilizing broad online support for Tuloy Aral, its impact components are very social and two-fold: helping farmers at the grassroots and supporting the basic nourishment needs of the youth scholars. We are glad to play a fundamental role in making this happen, especially now when it matters the most.” ~JT Solis and Atty. Ron Dime, the Co-Founders of Mayani, whose farm-to-table play has been revolutionizing the agricultural supply in the country

Mayani, who now powers the fresh produce value chain of the likes of Shell, Robinsons, and Waltermart, among others, is a long-standing partner of GrabPay with the latter serving as it’s e-wallet of choice in the Mayani ag-ecommerce site. Their existing collaborations include the ongoing Online National Food Fair for Cordillera farmers with the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Grab will be signal boosting Tuloy Aral via its mobile app starting this August leading to the Mayani ag-ecommerce site with various curated vegetable, fruit, and rice boxes that the market can choose from and donate. Mayani will reinforce the online traction-building for the project by employing all its digital channels as well as key billboard sites across Metro Manila with HDI Adventures, its ad-tech lead partner.

The fresh produce in each box will then be harvested by farmers in Pililia, Rizal under PSFI’s Integrated Farming Bio-Systems program, consolidated by Mayani, and then delivered to Caritas Manila for eventual distribution.