The Perks of Goat Raising

As a component of the DISOP BUTTERFLIES AND TREES Project, members of PBSP's community organizations in barangays Buhisan and Toong participated in a two-day seminar on goat production and management. 

During this seminar, PBSP taught the participants how to make silage (preserved goat food). A barrel will feed a goat (weighing 30 kg) for approximately 10 days.  The advantage of this technology? Farmers need not feed and look for food for their goats all the time. And, when food sources go scarce, this will serve as a reserve since it spoils after two years.

After this seminar, each people's organization will be provided with startup capital and at least 12 goats as their additional means of earning income.

PBSP-Visayas OKs Projects Worth P112M

PBSP-Visayas OKs Projects Worth P112M
By Malou M. Mozo
Manila Bulletin
March 19, 2012

CEBU CITY, Cebu — The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) Visayas’ Executive Committee said it has approved some P112 million worth of projects in the last two years, even as its head in the region said more projects are expected to be established this year with its partner companies, groups and donor agencies.

The PBSP is the largest corporate-led social development foundation in the country. Committed to poverty reduction, it is the first of its kind in Asia, leading in the promotion and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Jose Antonio Aboitiz, who chairs PBSP’s Visayas executive committee reported during PBSP’s recent annual membership meeting that programs in 2010 and 2011 in the Visayas valued at P112 million were focused on livelihood, enterprise, environment, education and health programs, as well as business advisory for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Said projects were established in Cebu, Bohol, Iloilo, Guimaraas, Leyte, Northern Samar and Southern Leyte provinces.

“PBSP positions itself as your organization of choice, as we have concrete programs and business solutions that bridge the gap between profitability and environmental sustainability and complement your business requirements with resources that our assisted communities can ably provide,” Aboitiz said during PBSP’s recently concluded 24th annual membership meeting.

“Corporate-community partnerships work along the value chain of companies. They help communities become suppliers of services or semi-processed goods to help fill the gaps of a company’s supply chain,” Aboitiz added, noting that corporate citizenship is “the DNA in PBSP’s business sector involvement.”

Among the many successful corporate-community partnerships forged by PBSP is that with a farming community that has benefitted from PBSP’s bridging it with Bohol-based Jojie’s Bakeshop, makers of peanut delicacies for which Bohol is known for.

Other success stories include a group of out-of-school boys, who now service upholstery orders from globally-famous furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue’s furniture-making company.

Meanwhile, PBSP executive director Rafael Lopa said that while the PBSP is one of the Philippine’s largest business-backed non-government organizations, close collaboration by all of its stakeholders is needed to achieve the organization’s objectives and the changes in society it wishes to effect.

“Your collective-giving has capacitated PBSP to absorb the management of huge grants from multi-lateral donor agencies,” said Lopa. “|Most notable are funding from USAid and the Global Fund for TB (tuberculosis) Control. He added that, currently, PBSP manages 40 percent of the total TB Control budget in the country.

He further announced that PBSP is finalizing big grants for classroom construction in public schools to aid in addressing the 66,000-classrooms backlog in the country.

Cebu business group vows more projects

Cebu business group vows more projects
By Marlen D. Limpag
Business World Online
March 18, 2012

CEBU CITY -- The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) said millions of pesos worth of projects have been implemented in the last two years even as more activities are expected this year with partner companies, groups and donor agencies, an official said.

Jose Antonio Aboitiz, chairman of the PBSP Visayas executive committee, said during the group’s annual membership meeting last week that programs in 2010 and 2011 -- worth P112 million -- focused on livelihood and enterprise, the environment, as well as education and health.

Social enterprise programs have the best potential to address the environment, material, and spiritual divides and bring the country forward, said Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Microventures, Inc. president.

For his part, Rafael C. Lopa, the group’s executive director, said new methods are required to address poverty and climate change issues, citing as example efforts to replicate management practices at Cebu’s watershed in the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape.

Entrepreneur says social enterprise best model for the future

Entrepreneur says social enterprise best model for the future
Philippine News Agency
March 18, 2012

CEBU CITY -- An entrepreneur has said that social enterprise, aside from helping the less fortunate, is the best business model for the future.

Speaking at the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) general membership meeting, Microventures Inc. president Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV said social enterprise simultaneously addressed spiritual, material and environmental divide in society.

While he lauded the Filipinos for being charitable, especially during times of calamities, he said there were some poor people who did not need charity.

Instead, they needed help acquiring skills to better themselves, he said.

Aquino, who organized the Hapinoy Stores with his business partner Mark Ruiz in 2006, likened successful social enterprises to “a new form of people power.”

“There is dignity in livelihood. If the poor are able to build a business on their own, there is a dignity there that can’t be bought,’ he said.

He said that by building business skills of sari-sari store owners and connecting them with companies, they were empowered to support themselves.

“As their stores grow, so will they, as individuals,” Aquino said.

Aquino said that as they grow their businesses they also become better family members.

Microventures service microfinance organizations and their clients through the Hapinoy Store program.

Aquino said that their company started with a dream to make the “lowly’ sari-sari store powerful.

With the sari-sari store being at the bottom of the retail chain, Aquino said they wanted to bring hope to micro-entrepreneurs, about 800,000 of these being sari-sari stores.

He said organizing owners of these stores allowed them to create a network of sari-sari stores and “transform their mindsets” from being a poor, helpless store owner to an entrepreneur with a business that could be scaled up with proper management.

While he admitted initial steps introduced to store owners were often met with resistance, he said they would later on willingly implement more discipline in running their stores and see things differently.

The Hapinoy program won the United Nation’s Project Inspire award against 400 other social enterprises.

He and Ruiz were also named Asian social entrepreneur of the year by the World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation for Social Enterprises.

Aquino also joined the board for Rags2Riches in 2007, a business that helps underprivileged women weave rags and turn these into fashion accessories.

He hopes that in five to 10 years, a similar model of the Hapinoy Program will flourish in other developing countries.

PBSP: Empowering people through enterprise

PBSP: Empowering people through enterprise 
By Grace Melanie I. Lacamiento 
The Freeman
March 17, 2012

CEBU, Philippines - Empowering socially and economically-challenged people to succeed on their own by managing small businesses like sari-sari stores can already make a difference in the society.

As the keynote speaker of the recent Visayas annual membership meeting of the Philippine Business for Social Progress, Microventures Inc. President Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino said that social enterprise is a model that can create transformation and sustainability that everyone can achieve.

“We believe in empowerment and social enterprise is a new form of people power. It is the best way to simultaneously address the environmental, material and spiritual divides in society,” Aquino said.

Aquino, who is a co-founder of Hapinoy store together with Mark Ruiz in 2006, said that the program intends to empower sari-sari store owners with good management skills and opportunities to be linked with manufacturers and other companies.

“Hapinoy store dreamed of a lowly store that can be a powerful store. This is a hope for micro-entrepreneurs,” he stated.

As the smallest unit of the retail chain having about 800,000 sari-sari stores all over the Philippines, Aquino said that working with the store owners and helping them transform their mindsets and uphold their dignity can improve the economy.

However, he pointed out that social enterprise is different with charity.

“We need charity. We definitely need that. But our contention in social enterprise is not all poor people needs charity. What they need is financing, training and management expertise to develop themselves,” Aquino said.

He added that micro-entrepreneurs have the capacity to do more on their skills, capital and opportunities, unleashing the power in communities to fight poverty and illiteracy.

Aquino encourages the sari-sari store owners to work together and be a stronger force of the society moving towards a tipping point, running their stores and perceiving things differently.

Managed by the Microventures Inc., the micro entrepreneur enhancement program aspires to be nationwide within two to three years and envisions itself to be globally-inclined in the next 5-10 years.

Hapinoy was among the five social entrepreneurs from Asia recognized as “Asian Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2011” by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Social enterprises ‘the future’

Social enterprises ‘the future’
By Mia A. Aznar
Sun.Star Cebu
March 15, 2012


Beyond helping the less fortunate, social enterprise is the best business model for the future, said an entrepreneur.

Speaking at the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) general membership meeting, Microventures Inc. president Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV said social enterprise simultaneously addresses spiritual, material and environmental divides in society.

While he lauds the Filipinos for being charitable, especially during times of calamities, he believes there are some poor people who do not need charity. Instead, they need help acquiring skills to better themselves.

Aquino, who organized the Hapinoy stores with his business partner Mark Ruiz in 2006, likened successful social enterprises to “a new form of people power.”

“There is dignity in livelihood. If they (poor) are able to build a business on their own, there is a dignity there that can’t be bought,” he said.

Empowerment


He explained that by building business skills of sari-sari store owners and connecting them with companies, they are empowered to support themselves.

“As their stores grow, so will they, as individuals.”

Aquino said that as they grow their businesses, they also become better family members.

Microventures services microfinancing organizations and their clients through the Hapinoy Store program.

Aquino said that their company started with a dream to make the “lowly” sari-sari store powerful.

With the sari-sari store being at the bottom of the retail chain, Aquino said they want to bring hope to microentrepreneurs, about 800,000 of these being sari-sari stores.

He said organizing owners of these stores allowed them to create a network of sari-sari stores and “transform their mindsets” from being a poor, helpless store owner to an entrepreneur with a business that can be scaled up with proper management.

Resistance

While he admitted initial steps introduced to storeowners are often met with resistance, he said they will later on willingly implement more discipline in running their stores and see things differently.

The Hapinoy Program won the United Nations’ Project Inspire award against 400 other social enterprises. He and Ruiz were also named Asian social entrepreneur of the year by the World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation for social enterprises.

Aquino also joined the board of Rags2Riches in 2007, a business that helps underprivileged women weave rags and turn these into fashion accessories.

He hopes that in five to 10 years, a similar model of the Hapinoy Program will flourish in other developing countries.

Congratulations, scholars!

Twenty days ago, they were charcoal makers. Now (20 days later), they've become full-fledged carpenters and masons.

Last November 30, thirty-five men from the barangays of Buhisan, Toong, Sapangdaku and Pamutan finally received their certificates of training after completing the 20-day course on Basic Carpentry and Masonry under the Don Bosco Technology Center. This training course is a component of the diSop Butterflies & Trees Project.

Attending the graduation ceremony were DBTC-TVED Training Director Fr. Rex Carbilledo, SDB; DBTC-TVED Trainor Marcia Roma, Jr.; and PBSP Visayas Executive Committee Member Rogelio Lim.

Following their graduation, the scholars will undergo a TESDA Accreditation Assessment for their NC II certification.

See the full gallery on our Photo Blog.

Meet our Scholars (Basic Carpentry and Masonry)

All of them, all 35 of them, were charcoal makers.

With ages ranging from 19 to 42, these men used to trail the densest forests of the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve in search of fine wood, setting aside their own conscience to be able to put food in the table for their own families.

Now they are given better chances of generating more income by learning skills in basic carpentry and masonry for a 20-day course in Don Bosco Technology Center. This is a livelihood initiative under the diSop Butterflies and Trees Project, which will run for three years until 2013.

Through this effort, PBSP helps reduce the pressure on Cebu's treasured forests and uplift the lives of these upland communities.

See the full gallery on our Photo Blog.