PH Consulate General Visits Centro Filipino-Tuluyan San Beniton in Barcelona

Children aged 6 to12 attend the Saturday classes of Iskwelang Pinoy. (Barcelona PCG photo)

BARCELONA 06 December 2022 — Philippine Consul General to Barcelona Maria Theresa S.M. Lazaro, accompanied by Ms. Rosanna M. Sumala, Administrative and FilCom Relations Officer, visited the Iskwelang Pinoy and Idioma classes at the Escola Pia Sant Antoni on 26 November 2022.

Ms. Rosa "Tita Rosa" Irasusta, President of Centro Filipino-Tuluyan San Benito, Filipino community volunteers, parents, and students alike, warmly received the officials from the Philippine Consulate General. The younger students of Iskwelang Pinoy performed a dance number and showed their newly acquired skills in Tagalog language to the visiting officials.

The officials took the opportunity to inform the students of the Spanish classes about the commencement of overseas voting registration on 09 December 2022 and encouraged all eligible applicants to register to be able to vote in the Philippine mid-term elections. The officials also entertained some questions on consular matters from the students.

The Iskwelang Pinoy and the Idioma classes are projects of the Centro Filipino-Tuluyan San Benito, a Filipino civic organization founded in 1986 in Barcelona that helps Filipinos integrate in Catalonia.  It offers free classes to teach Filipino children in Barcelona Philippine history and culture, language, values and traditions. Currently, the Iskwelang Pinoy has 75 students, aged 6 to 12, divided into four classes according to age.

The Idioma classes, on the other hand, aims to help newly-arrived Filipinos in Barcelona integrate into their new environment and help them with their residency application by giving free Spanish and Catalan classes. There are 240 Filipinos attending the eight free Spanish language classes offered Centro Filipino.

Both the Iskwelang Pinoy and the Idioma classes are held every Saturday at Escola Pia Sant Antoni. They are conducted by more than 40 Filipino volunteers who unselfishly offer their services for free to help our kababayan integrate in the city.  Most of the younger volunteers are also graduates of the Iskwelang Pinoy.  END

Students of Spanish language classes for social integration. (Barcelona PCG photo)

For more information, visit https://barcelonapcg.dfa.gov.ph/ or https://www.facebook.com/PHinBarcelona/