Philippine school made from APL cargo containers inaugurated

JOC Staff |
MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES, 31 AUGUST 2011: NOL Group, the Singapore-based container shipping and logistics company, celebrated with the Philippine Christian Foundation (PCF) the inauguration of the container school called “Philippine Technical College.” The campus is built exclusively from APL cargo containers.

NOL Group donated 53 containers to PCF and subsidized the purchase of 26 more. The Group also sponsored a classroom for students and shipped three 40-foot-containers of building materials to Manila to assist in the school’s construction.

“We’re privileged to support this landmark project in a unique way,” said Edgar Milla, APL’s Managing Director for the Philippines. “Providing building blocks for education is a step towards a stronger community.”

The containers were sheathed in concrete for added strength and used as primary construction material for the school. The design of the facility meets the standards of the Philippine Department of Education.

The school was officially inaugurated at a ceremony yesterday. The four-storey facility is near an area known as Smokey Mountain, once the site of a garbage dump. It now houses 1,000 students from one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Manila. It is believed to be the largest school in the world built from cargo containers.

The school is run by PCF and offers classes from pre-school through high school as well as offering vocational courses for livelihood skills training. The Foundation’s primary objective is to use education to bring an end to child labour at Smokey Mountain dump site.

About NOL
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) is a Singapore-based global container shipping and logistics company. Its container shipping arm, APL, provides world-class container shipping and terminal services and intermodal operations supported by leading-edge IT and e-commerce. Its logistics business, APL Logistics, provides international, end-to-end logistics services and solutions, employing the latest IT and data connectivity for maximum supply chain visibility and control. NOL Web site: www.nol.com.sg.