A Statement of Purpose
The Barangay Pepita People's Learning Center is devoted to the promotion of education in the small town of Barangay Pepita on the island of Leyte in the Philippines.
The story of how the Barangay Pepita People's Learning Center came to be begins decades ago when Cora Noyes was just a child reading the discarded newspapers used to wrap food. Reading material was scarce and many children hungry like her for knowledge had to leave to find it. Cora went on to college vowing to give back to the community that raised her. Cora eventually married David Noyes and immigrated to the Philippines. Together, they coordinate with volunteers in the Philippines and libraries in the United States. The center was proposed in June of 2007 with the realization that thousands of books were being discarded to landfills or needlessly recycled by local libraries and bookstores. Since then, thousands of books have been salvaged and are being sent to the Philippines. Books are rare and expensive in the Philippines where many of the people are trilingual, speaking common Tagalog, their local dialects of Tagalog, and English. Books in the learning centers not only benefit local school children but aspiring college students and the elderly. The learning centers are open to the community.
The Barangay Pepita People's Learning Center website is under constant update. Volunteers in the town of Barangay Pepita began construction of the center on April 11, 2008 and it opened on June 10, 2008. Plans are under way to open another learning center in the township of Alangalang on the island of Leyte. Sites in New Zealand and South Korea are also under development.
Please feel free to explore. There is still plenty to look at. Pause your cursor over the pictures to get a brief explanation.