Rustan's Essenses Foundation Women who help other women

Women have the most difficult roles in life – wife, mother, sister or a friend. Because of these roles, which usually require a woman’s utmost attention, most women tend to forget about taking care of themselves.

In March 2005, Mrs. Gliceria Tantoco of Rustan’s thought of a way to give back to the community, particularly to help women take care of themselves, thus, the establishment of the Rustan’s Essenses Foundation, a non-stock, non-profit organization that is community driven, women-focused and customer-participated, the first of its kind in the Philippines. The foundation is run by Rustan’s customers who sit as trustees and the store’s clients are the participants.

Former Ms. Universe Margie Moran-Floirendo, a member of the board of trustees, said that the foundation gives women who need help an opportunity to be part of Rustan’s and Rustan’s to be part of the lives of thousands of women who are in need.

For every P500 purchase at Essenses in a Rustan’s Department Store, P1 goes to the Essenses Foundation and this donation translates to help for countless number of women in different fields.

“We are here to help others who need help,” said Kathleen “Maymay” Lior-Liechtenstein, Essenses Foundation’s president.

The foundation, with 14 beautiful and talented women as officers and board of trustees, has different projects that promote health and well-being, arts and culture, education, economics and women’s rights advocacy.

Among the many projects of the foundation to promote health and well-being is the yearly Look Good Feel Good Workshop, a day of pampering and bonding among cancer survivors. The workshop, done in collaboration with I Can Serve Foundation, pampers women with cancer by providing beauty care, making them “feel good inside and look good outside.” The workshop was introduced in Cebu in September 2006 at the Rustan’s Department Store at Ayala and has since then helped women with cancer feel good about themselves. The Essenses Foundation has also helped 30 stage 1 and 2 breast cancer survivors by providing them free full chemotherapy treatment with its Gift of Life project.

In the field of arts and culture, the foundation, with the help of Ballet Philippines Foundation, also provides scholarship grants to female dancers of Ballet Philippines and is also providing grants for the continuation of the Tinalak weaving in Mindanao to help the T’boli Tribe become more economically independent.

“Many of our ballet dancers have left to work in Disneyland. We are providing the female dancers of Ballet Philippines scholarship grants so that they will stay with us. This project is our way of supporting arts and culture because arts and culture is part of who we are,” shared Ms. Floirendo.

To promote reading, Ms. Menchu Soriano shared that the foundation, together with Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation, facilitated the donation of US$90,000.00 worth of books from McGraw Hill Education Asia to the Holy Family Home Libraries, which is run by the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of Cebu. The dormitories that are run by the Capuchin Sisters serve female high school and college students from different surrounding provinces who come to Cebu to study.

The foundation also provides entrepreneurial and leadership development programs to 350 marginalized families in Makati and Payatas, Quezon City to make women effective entrepreneurs and leaders. Aside from boosting the confidence of these women, the program can also help uplift the economic status of their families.

Ms. Liechtenstein said that the Essenses Foundation’s Primer on Women’s Rights is also one of their projects that have the most impact on women. She said that the primer, printed in English, Filipino and Hiligaynon, give women the information they need to face the challenges of their ever expanding rights and responsibilities as a mother, a wife, a career woman and as a citizen of the Philippines.

“The Rustan’s Essenses Foundation is our way of doing our part to help. We have so many problems in the country. We cannot do everything. But little drops of water will soon fill the bucket. All it takes is a little help from you, from us, from everyone. We hope that everyone will do their part and hopefully we will get there,” said Ms. Soriano.