TO promote biodiversity, the corporate social responsibility arm of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) recently unveiled its second fully customized classroom-on-wheels “EcoVan.” The project is being held by HARI Foundation Inc. (HFI) and the Haribon Foundation, an environmental advocacy group.

HARI is a distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the Philippines. It customized the EcoVan with local truck body builder Centro Manufacturing Corp.

The EcoVan has a cargo deck that has been configured into a small classroom with a built-in library, an audio-visual system with a large screen for film showings and AVP presentations, interactive games, an art booth for workshops and storytelling, and a display of Haribon merchandise and information materials.

The mobile eco-classroom is set to be deployed to the Visayas in order to spread the environmental advocacy of both HFI and Haribon. A third EcoVan is presently being built, which would be assigned by HFI early next year to Mindanao.

To date, 1,794 grade-school students and 130 kindergarten students in five public schools in Metro Manila have benefited from the first EcoVan, which was unveiled and turned over to Haribon during the group’s 40th anniversary celebration on Earth Day in April 22. The mobile classroom has already visited five elementary schools in Makati, Quezon City and Marikina, with more than 1,900 students having attended the biodiversity learning sessions given by the training and education team of Haribon.

Other schools in Metro Manila are being lined up for the next batch of learning sessions.