HALFWAY THROUGH ITS FIRST DECADE
The Strategic Intent of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation, Inc. (PJLFI), as it enters the second half of the first decade of its existence, is to be a truly effective aid in nation building by being able to lead or coordinate meaningful activities of associations and individuals with the same universal goal of poverty alleviation through focused advocacies on:
1.HEALTH
2.EDUCATION
3.ENTREPRENEURSHIP
4.DIRECT INTERVENTION IN SELECTED CASES
Its concrete goal is to be able to institutionalize, within the decade, activities which can effectively provide meaningful assistance to the poor through sustained cooperation among organizations and individuals committed to the same cause of poverty alleviation through the said focused advocacies which are easily remembered through the acronym HEED.
ON ITS SEVENTH YEAR… A LOOK AT THE PJ LHUILLIER FOUNDATION
Almost seven years have passed since the incorporation on December 28, 2000 of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation, Inc. (PJLFI) as the Lhuilliers’ instrument of corporate social responsibility. And this seventh year has just been as fruitful as the rest.
At the forefront of the Foundation’s accomplishments for the year is the Nationwide Scholarship Program which again reaped bountiful harvest of thirty-two (32) graduates for the school-year 2006-2007, fifteen (15) or ALMOST ONE HALF of whom graduated with honors and/or special awards (1 Magna Cum Laude, 7 Cum Laudes and 7 Special Awardees). This augurs well for the Foundation’s system of selecting its scholars (which includes, among others, the panel interview of both the student applicants and their parents to assure full support for the students at home). The year’s harvest has raised the total number of graduate scholars to 114, 45 of whom with honors and/or special awards (5 Magna Cum Laudes, 22 Cum Laudes and 18 Special Awardees).Aside from said continuing Nationwide Scholarship Program, the PJLFI has likewise embarked on other projects which touched the lives of thousands of beneficiaries. Some of the other projects undertaken by the PJLFI on its seventh year are: (1) the Bicol Relief Operation; (2) the Ang Galing Mo Bata Daycare |
The "Alay sa Bayan" donation can is displayed in one of
the Cebuana Lhuillier pawnshops. |
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Center Feeding Project;(3) the PGH Cancer Institute Outreach Project; (4) the Adopt-a-School Program with CAL Informatics; (4) the U.P. Singing Ambassadors Fund-Raising Concert; (5) the “Alay sa Bayan” National Can Project;(7) the Scholars’ Outreach Project; and (8) the publication and release of this issue of its newsletter: DAYBREAK. |
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As PJLFI Founder and Chairman, Amb. Philippe J. Lhuillier sets aside some of his time to participate in the Foundation's projects. |
Chairman’s Active Participation
As in the past six years, the Founder and Chairman of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation, His Excellency Amb. Philippe J. Lhuillier, despite his very hectic schedule as Philippine Ambassador to Italy, devoted part of his precious time in actively participating in some important Foundation projects, like the Appreciation Day for the Ang Galing Mo, Bata! Daycare Center Feeding Project, the Fund-Raising Concert of the U.P. Singing Ambassadors for PJLFI Beneficiaries and the Annual Visit and Gift-Giving to the Cancer Patients of the Cancer Institute of the Philippine General Hospital. In the last activity, the Ambassador, in the company of his son, Foundation Trustee Andre Lhuillier, patiently talked individually with all of the cancer patients and their companions and cheered them up. |
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Employees’ Support
When typhoon Reming struck, the Bicol Region has not yet even fully recovered from the aftermath of supertyphoon Milenyo. Hardest hit was the province of Albay in view of the severe aggravation caused by the eruption of its Mayon Volcano which spewed huge volumes of boulders, sand and other pyrotechnic materials which engulfed and completely buried or wiped out defenseless communities which stood in the way of the cascading agents of hell!
This prompted Atty. Cesar Vidal, Chief Legal Officer of the P.J. Lhuillier Group of Companies (PJLGC) and Executive Trustee of the PJLFI, to again lead the kind-hearted employees of PJLGC to raise funds for a Bicol Relief Operation. Like what they previously did for the victims of landslides in Leyte and Quezon, the employees responded so generously to help as much families as they could in the vastly devastated province of Albay. |
 2,500 bags were prepared for the Bicol relief operation |
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PJLFI scholars reach out to residents of Marillac Hills |
The UP Singing Ambassadors perform in "One Voice,
One Heart", a fund-raising concert. |
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| As a result, a total of more than half a million pesos was raised! As usual, the Lhuillier Family, through the President of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation, Inc., Mr. Jean Henri Lhuillier, gave a counterpart of twice the amount raised by the employees, or more than one million pesos. Thus, a total of more than one and a half million pesos was made available for the Bicol Relief Operation which was undertaken in January of this year. |
A CALL TO SYNERGY
The PJLFI continues working on having all facets of HEED to be place, if not intensified.
As mentioned in the first issue of Daybreak, PJLFI needs the synergy of various forces. In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey defined "Synergy" as "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." It is "Creative Cooperation" and "Valuing diffferences." When fully used, it is "most catalytic, most empowering, most unifying and most exciting."
In the coming years, the PJLFI will focus on creating more synergies in the expansion of its two flagship programs, the ANG GALING MO, BATA! Nationwide Sholarship Program and ANG GALING MO, BATA! Day Care Center Feeding Program, both of which are anchored on the realization that education is the equalizing force which can effectively give suffering masses the oppurtunity to librate themselves from the bondage of poverty.
We need additional partners for these two programs. And We hope that in the next issues of this newsletter, we will be able to demonstrate more the successes of said Programs so that many more will be motivated to join in our collective effort to liberate our sufferring masses! |
ODE TO POVERTY
The PJLFI, in synergy with other associations, is committed to erase the ugly face of poverty as embodied in the following:
Poverty... oh poverty
Why do our people succumb to thee?
Oh what power... oh what might
Do thy self wield on mortal world?
Poverty... oh poverty
Because of thee, no food to eat;
No medicine to cure the sick;
Not even shelter, nor clothes to wear.
Just like a quicksand, your pull persists
To drag the poor into their graves!
The education that could reverse
You have prevented to be of aid!
Poverty... oh poverty
Your ugly face we will erase!
With firm joined hands... in synergy,
Attack we will on thy vast lair!
With firm joined hands... in synergy,
Attack we will on thy vast lair!
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