Gold coins for Ninoy

He may be known to youngsters as the father of Kris Aquino. But we older people know Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino as the freedom fighter whose death ignited a bloodless revolution and brought a dictatorship to his knees. And it is only right that this hero would be immortalized in gold coins.

Ninoy has been chosen by GoldQuest International Ltd., a global numismatics company based in Hong Kong, as the first Filipino to be featured in its "Champions for Peace" series. He joins the ranks of such famous personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa who are immortalized in the coin series that pays tribute to historical figures who contributed to world peace. The gold coin will be minted by Germany’s B.H. Mayer’s Mint and will be marketed worldwide through GoldQuest.

The Ninoy Aquino Commemorative Coin is a project of GoldQuest led by Joseph Bismark, director for corporate affairs, and The Spirit of EDSA Foundation headed by its founding chairman, Christopher Carrion. The partnership was formalized recently through a contract signing which was attended by former Press Secretary Teddy Benigno, GoldQuest-Philippines country manager Victor Asuncion and B.H. Mayer’s Mint chairman Bernhard Mayer. The signing forms part of the preparations for the observance of Ninoy’s 20th death anniversary in August.

Ninoy made peace, particularly for his fellow Filipinos, his special quest. It is said that during his incarceration at Fort Bonifacio during Martial Law, he closely studied the life and ideals of Gandhi, who was assassinated during his quest for peace. Ninoy’s seven years and seven months as a political detainee, Raul Rodrigo disclosed in his book Phoenix, had tempered the brash young politician into a "wise man who quoted Gandhi." Ninoy had also begun to believe that his country could be freed from the shackles of martial law through purely peaceful means.

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On another front, the National Council of Women of the Philippines (NCWP) will celebrate its 57th anniversary on Monday with the launching of two books, former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani’s values handbook titled Empowering the Filipino, Empowering the Nation, and the NCWP’s own Guidebook on Empowering Women in NGOs.

Myrna T. Yao, NCWP president, says these two books are "part of our response to the call of NCWP members and the Local Councils of women for more empowerment tools that they can access and bring to the level of their grassroots women members."

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Another guidebook that will be useful to NGOs, LGUs, people‚s organizations, cooperatives, schools, and government agencies is the "Proposal Writing Guidebook" authored by Danilo D. Pineda. Published by Tritium Knowledge Center Publishing, it shows one how to write winning and successful project proposals for funding, and employ step-by-step procedures, techniques, and strategies in writing one’s proposals. It lists resources to help the proposal writer pinpoint funders, donors or grant-makers.

Looking for funders who will give you the money to get a project started and going is not easy. And the reasons why an applicant doesn’t get it include the way you write your project proposal. Pineda writes: "If your written funding proposal is not up to it or if it is not well thought up, you will find that you will be asked to revise or explain further the entirety of our proposal and this could ultimately result in a denial of your funding if your proposal does not hang together."

To learn to write the prize-wining proposal, call Tritium Knowledge Center at 531-0084 or 0919 229 9780.

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Still on another front, not in his wildest dreams did Jose "Joey" Antonio Kierulf see himself as becoming an "impressive" school director. Joey was doing so well as an exporter of fashion accessories, selling them by the container. Smart businessman that he is, he saw the competition to be getting too tough, so he got out of the business, and helped manage his mother’s school, the first Sacred Heart Academy, in Retiro, Manila. Joey was no stranger to the idea of running schools, his mother having founded one, and his sister Jojo Kierulf-Zabarte managing her own Sacred Heart Academy in Novaliches (SHAN). Now Joey directs his own school, the Sacred Heart Academy of Pasig (SHAP).

Three years ago, SHAP opened its doors to preschoolers; now it offers grade school, and high school education, and its programs, drawn up with Rose Villamor, formerly of the International School, are aimed at integrating excellence in the school curriculum.

Recently, SHAP and EDUQUEST signed a memorandum of understanding whereby the latter provides students with reading and math literacy technology, and the former identifies classes, teachers and educational managers for the program as well as conduct action research, including administration of research instruments and consolidation of research data.

SHAP students are encouraged to join competitive activities such as the editorial writing competition in the National Capital Region, where they won awards. Students placed second in the IT Olympiad sponsored by the AMA Ortigas Campus in 2002. They have exhibited their art works made under the tutelage of Lubin Nepomuceno, and last December, the school choir performed at the Dusit Hotel and the Shangri-La Plaza. They excel in chess and basketball games, and to round out their exposure, Principal Lorna Gonzales engages them in outreach activities

Joey, the businessman-cum-educator, is proud about the way his school is turning out.

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