Uber Supports Better Access to Education

Part of proceeds from Uber Ice Cream donated to Yellow Boat of Hope

In many parts of the country, many children need to go through difficult terrain just to go to school. Some scale mountains and tread kilometers of unpaved roads just to learn, while some cross rivers and other large bodies of water in the hope to have a brighter future through education.

Uber, the world’s leading ridesharing application, provides a safe, reliable, and convenient transportation option to the Filipino riding public. The same dedication that Uber has shown towards the safety of their passengers is mirrored by the Yellow Boat of Hope, an organization that is devoted to providing students in rural coastal communities a way to reach their schools safely. To support this worthy cause, Uber Philippines will donate a part of the proceeds of its Uber Ice Cream initiative here in the country, an initiative to celebrate the world’s common passion for ice cream done in over 400 cities worldwide, to Yellow Boat of Hope.

“Uber continues to provide a viable transportation option to Filipinos. In some of our coastal communities, some students don’t have the luxury of having a safe means of transportation to their schools. Through this donation, we hope that we can help students in some of our most remote communities have better access to education,” Uber Philippines General Manager Laurence Cua said. “We have seen the work of Yellow Boat of Hope in some of the poorest and most remote communities in our country, and they are really changing the lives of the children in these places. Much like Yellow Boat of Hope, we at Uber see education as a tool to promote long-term development in our country.”

The Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation is an organization that provides boats to coastal communities that are in need of better transportation through waterways. The vehicles provided by the organization are then used to ferry school children safely to their schools.

Yellow Boat of Hope began in March 2011, helping a community in Zamboanga where some students regularly swam across a river just to get to school. Since then, the organization has been able to reach 70 communities and help more than 10,000 students from all over the Philippines. Yellow Boat of Hope has also built Schools of Hope, classrooms, dormitories, and bridges, and distributed school supplies and bags. They have also hosted medical and dental missions, and conducted feeding programs.

“We love this partnership with Uber because the yellow boat fetches kids from their homes to go to school. In the same way, Uber transports passengers from their homes or offices to the places that they need to be in efficiently and effectively. It really seems like we’re doing the same thing,” said Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation Co-Founder Jay Jaboneta.

A significant amount of the proceeds from this year’s Uber Ice Cream will be donated to Yellow Boat of Hope. The funds will be used by Yellow Boat of Hope as they continue to work in different communities in the Philippines.

“Uber is dedicated to providing greater access to transportation in some of the most congested areas in the country. We hope that with this donation Yellow Boat of Hope can continue to make a lasting impact in the lives of our students by providing them with better access to education,” Cua concluded.