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.
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.

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.

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
PJLFI scholars reach out to residents of Marillac Hills

The UP Singing Ambassadors perform in "One Voice,
One Heart", a fund-raising concert.
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.