For enlightened business owners, the need to share good fortune rings clear and true as well. When my college friend's mother saw her business doing better than expected, she needed to show gratitude for the good "karma." She focused on the education of gifted children from financially challenged families, and since the late 90's has graduated twenty high school and college students.
Multiply this a thousand fold when a business conglomerate shares its good fortune. One such is the Aboitiz Group of companies whose beneficiaries reach far and many, through its corporate social responsibility arm, the Aboitiz Group Foundation, Inc. (AGFI). But while AGFI may have begun in 1989, the tradition of giving began much earlier, as early as the grand patriarch, Don Ramon Aboitiz. His words continue to resound, "You have been blessed with so much, so don't forget the poor."
AGFI's centerpiece programs include entrepreneurial development, primary health and childcare, environmental protection and conservation, and education and skills development. The education component involves donations of infrastructure such as school buildings and classrooms, computers, computer literacy programs and scholarship grants.
So far, AGFI has donated 97 classrooms nationwide, as well as 427 brand new computer sets complete with software licenses and printers; refurbished 17 computer laboratories, and supported more than 1,200 students yearly through scholarship grants and financial assistance. However the form of assistance to communities, beneficiaries' reactions are the same: genuine happiness and deep gratitude.
"Kanindut oy, bug-at!" (How nice, it's heavy!) exclaimed Carolina, one of the scholars, as she received a package filled with 20 notebooks, packs of white bond paper, 4 pentel pens, 3 packs of art paper, yellow pads, writing pads, plastic covers, ball pens, a box of pencils, a ruler, a pair of scissors and 2 new uniform sets. The occasion was the turnover ceremony of the educational assistance to high school students.
Carolina is among the first set of 100 scholars under the Street and Urban Working Students (SUWS) project of AGFI. With the assistance of the City Government of Lapu-Lapu and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, AGFI began the SUWS project three years ago. Lapu-lapu City provided barangay and monitoring assistance, DSWD gave guidance services and ensured the project's continuous progress, and AGFI provided the funds for the scholarship grants.
Without this project, what was the scholars' alternative in Lapu-lapu, particularly barangays Pajo and Basak? Most likely, they would've joined the ranks of other teenagers spending their waking and sleeping hours churning out rugs and ropes. Rug and rope making is the community's primary means of income, their products sold, along with cigarettes and candies, in bus and jeepney terminals. Seeing the need for interventions, AGFI launched the SUWS. Primarily focused on the vicinity surrounding Aboitiz Land in MEPZ II, AGFI identified fifty students each from barangays Pajo and Basak. After word-of-mouth announcements and endorsements from barangay volunteers, parents sought applications for their children.
Now on its pilot run, the project has drawn commitment, ambition and seriousness of purpose from the young scholars. At the turnover ceremonies this month at the Social Development Center in Lapu-Lapu City, the AGFI Project Officer expressed mixed emotions. He felt sad for those who dropped out, and great triumph with the scholars who remained. He advised the scholars to be unrelenting in their studies, to participate in school activities, and to trust themselves enough to know that they can and will succeed, despite their financial challenges.
Clearly, the advice did not fall on deaf ears. Take Joan Mesa, a charming and bedimpled senior at the Marigondon National High School, who considers herself "very lucky to be an Aboitiz scholar." The third of seven children, she had difficulty meeting class requirements and participating in school activities. The reason: There was never enough money. Her carpenter-father sidelined as a rug maker when constructions were scarce. Before getting the scholarship, Joan slept no earlier than 10 pm. She, too, helped make rugs for the next day's supply, and awoke at 5 every morning to help her mother with chores before heading off to school.
Now, Joan sleeps at 8 pm. And she dreams of becoming a teacher because "the teacher helps create the doctors, the engineers, the lawyers, etc.". Will she teach abroad, too? Her eyes turn serious and she says, "Our country is in economic crisis. If we go abroad, we will only be worsening the country's condition because no one will be left to work for the betterment of our community." How about the current issues and calls for the Philippine president to resign? She pouts, then says, "I'd like to tell those protestors na ang kanang gagmay nga issues, dili unta na nila padak-on" (I'd like to tell those protestors that trivial matters should not be blown out of proportion).
Marlon Gutang, another senior at Marigondon National High School, is "proud of being a scholar, and an Aboitiz scholar at that; not just a scholar nga baynte-singko ba, nga scholar-scholar lang ba." Why do you think some of your schoolmates dropped out? "Maybe they didn't give the scholarship enough importance." He laments, "Some of them gani, Ma'am, dili na managad namo." (Some former classmate-scholars shun us), perhaps because the scholars are regarded as acting high and mighty for preferring studies to helping their families bring in money. But passionate and driven, Marlon is determined to finish college. What makes him sure he'll succeed? "Success is more a matter of discipline and determination; brains alone are no guarantee." Amazing grounding for a boy not quite a man. And love and marriage will have to wait…. a long while. If he had money, he'd be a doctor. He fancies a career in radio broadcasting, saying Bobby Nalzaro is his idol. But he'll be a teacher instead.
For the project to continue beyond the first wave of scholars, at least 50 out of the 100 scholars must graduate. At the show of seniors' hands, success is a foregone conclusion. Thirty-two have since graduated, moving on to college or vocational courses, particularly at the Center for Industrial and Technological Enterprise (CITE). And forty-nine are currently enrolled from first to fourth year high school. Additional cash incentives are given to students who end up in the top ten, and to honor graduates.
As the ceremony ended and the scholars walked away with their bags of educational assistance, their faces beaming widely, I remembered how arrogant we used to be years ago. School to us then was some form of punishment. Needing to survive, we saw schools as places to hang out in and multiply out number of people we said hello to, when entering a club or resto-bar. A brief exposure to a world outside malls and Friendster bites us like no other: indeed, how privileged some of us were, not to even worry about getting into a good college. In sharing their fortunes through the SUWS program, the Aboitiz Group has helped street and urban youths uplift their lives and define their future. The heavens must be pleased.