At three kilometers from her home the school is not that far off, to be sure. But in these parts, there are no such modern conveniences as light rail transits or even the ubiquitous urban FXs, and the best Nenita can do was way of public commute, which is a ride to the main road traversing the area.

Then she would start walking on a winding dirt road. In the mud when it rains, in the dust and heat when it doesn't.

 To make matters worse, her dilapidated shack of a schoolhouse, in her words, was a “kulungan ng baka.” (Of course, that changed in February 2003, when Coca-Cola built a Little Red Schoolhouse in place of the old one.) If one thinks this ought to be enough to sap Nenita's enthusiasm for the job, it is a wrong assessment: Remarkably, she has been able to rally the entire community surrounding her school to be active players in their destiny, giving meaning to the tired buzzword “empowerment” in a place that has possibly never heard of it.

 But Nenita, who insists that her story is not at all unique, has had some help and she is the first to say so. In February 2001, the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines Inc. (CCFPI) turned over a modern, three-classroom Little Red Schoolhouse to replace the old Campanario Elementary School. With school chairs, desks, toilets, and a water system, the new school was everything the old one wasn't.

 Only five months after the school was completed, a powerful typhoon ripped through the area, totally demolishing the original school. The Little Red Schoolhouse was intact, but the windowpanes were shattered. In no time, Nenita heralded the town folks, who enthusiastically did the repairs and even added a concrete fence.

 Recently, Nenita placed 2nd in the Department of Education's annual “Search for Multigrade Teacher Achiever.” It was not an entirely new experience: the previous year, she placed fifth. Nenita's “secret,” if it is one, is simple: “I never stop searching for ways to make my teaching profession meaningful and fruitful.”

 Nenita was actually one of the three Little Red Schoolhouse teachers in the annual selection. This year, 13 out of 21,394 multigrade public school teachers made it to the list, with the other two Little Red Schoolhouse teachers being Edna Duhaylungsod of Misamis Occidental province and Lilybeth Gomez of Maguindanao province.

 The Little Red Schoolhouse Project is the ongoing, multi-million dollar flagship program of CCPFI. To date, it has constructed 55 furnished and equipped schoolhouses all over the Philippines, all designed to facilitate multigrade teaching.

 Upon completion, the schools are formally turned over to the Department of Education, which assigns teachers to each. Education Secretary Edilberto De Jesus has described Little Red Schoolhouses as the best made in the country's public school system.

 In addition to schoolhouses, the program also includes three-day teacher-training workshops on the multigrade method. Conducted in the country's major cities, all workshop expenses are shouldered by the foundation. Participation is not limited to Little Red Schoolhouse teachers: since 1998, 333 public multigrade teachers have completed the workshop, with only 65 being actually assigned in Little Red Schoolhouses.

 “To have three Little Red Schoolhouse teachers included among only 13, in a field of over 21,000 other multigrade teachers, is not only a distinct honor for our flagship program,” said CCFPI president Cecile Alcantara. “More importantly, it is tangible evidence that the Little Red Schoolhouse Project has progressed in the right direction since it was launched in 1997.”