We are a community of people who once lived in the indigent community of Old Balara, Quezon City. We established a school there in 1987 to help our neighbors prosper like we had done, by picking up tools from education, and living by the principles taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. Over 32 years, we have trained 3674 underprivileged children, weaving an enterprise education curriculum into the K-12 framework of the DepEd, building on the core values of MakaDiyos, Makatao, Maka kalikasan, and Maka bansa for the youth. As pioneer in promoting innovations in entrepreneurship development, the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation (SERDEF) supported the development and documentation of our community-based and contextualized approach, naming it “Building Enteprising Society Today” (BEST).
Beginning In 2014, the life of OB Christian Community School was threatened. On one hand, building rental rose steeply on account of infrastructure developments around Tandang Sora Avenue, and on the other hand, student population spiralled downwards caused by demolition of homes around our neighborhood. Those of us who loved educating the little children in our community could not allow the school to die. We heard the media, the academe and the NGO community appreciating our enterprise education curriculum, and SERDEF future publications on the BEST approach needed our school as a live case to study for others to build upon.
From 2015 to 2018, the OBCCS community members banded together to save the school. Students, parents, teachers, association members, friends, relatives, OFWs, organizations, and businesses contributed. The school successfully passed stringent standards of the Philippine Council for NGO Certification for governance and accountability so that donors could feel safe about their giving. Donations made possible the purchase of a 591 square meter lot in Rodriguez, Rizal.
Transplanting the school to its permanent home has now stepped up to the next level!! We are now raising the funds needed for constructing a five-storey building as base for providing programs to equip indigent youth to participate productively in the economy. When completed, our facility will house around 450 students from K-12, and another 450 students in TESDA courses we will run in the evenings and weekends.
We aim to attract the children and youth from indigent communities around our site in Amityville. The communities will include, among others, residents of Kasiglahan Village, Isidro, Relocation, Erap City, and Tagumpay. These areas now host many of the families from demolished homes in Old Balara in Quezon City, where we used to serve them.
