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The philanthropic arm of the SM group, SM Foundation, has added more scholars under its wings as it sponsors 20 Grades 7 to 12 students at the Sisters of Mary School Girlstown in Bo. Biga, Silang Cavite, one of the campuses of the Sisters of Mary Schools in the Philippines, while SM Foundation chairman Harley Sy added 20 more students from the institution to his roster of personal scholars.
SM Foundation also donated special sewing machines, useful to the institution as students are trained to sew their own school uniforms.
Dressmaking is among the courses offered in the institution. Aside from this course, others offered are Bookkeeping NC II, Computer-Aided Drafting and Design / Building Information Modeling NC II, Consumer Electronics Servicing NC II, Contact Center Services NC II, Food and Beverage Services NC II Commercial Cooking NC II, Housekeeping NC II, Mechatronics Servicing NC II, and Technical Drafting NC II.
The Sisters of Mary School is a non-stock, non-profit, non-paying, live-in secondary institution for the marginalized poor. It has a population of 3,500 girls, who are enrolled in Grade 7 to 12.
It is maintained and supported mainly by donations, gifts and bequests from generous local and foreign benefactors.
These donations take care of the institution’s operational expenses from the maintenance of buildings, wages and salaries for teachers, food for the residents, and tuition fees which amount to P46,000 annually per student.
The school operates on a year-round basis with only a two-week vacation. For their extra- curricular activities, 22 girls are taught to make “music bells” with the use of bells from Japan.
They are one of only two “bell bands” in the country with the other one based in Baguio. Teaching the bell band members is a Korean instructor. They are very much in demand in playing in five-star hotels.
The Girlstown was founded by the late Rt. Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz and run by The Sisters of Mary of Banneux.
The institution boasts of 97 percent of graduates being hired as skilled professionals while the remainder pursue diploma courses.
One of the 2016 SM scholar graduates is a Magna Cum Laude from National University from nearby Boystown in Adlas, Cavite, an institution also run by the Sisters of Mary of Banneux.