President’s Report
The idea of establishing a Foundation for the alumnae of St. Scholastica’s
Academy-Bacolod (SSA-B) was always a dream that seemed too difficult to realize.
However, just over a year ago, our founding members headed by Jean V. Trebol
cracked their heads and pooled their resources together to organize the Foundation
and have it registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This report covers the period since the inception of our Foundation in July
2003 to December 2004 which marks the end of this Fiscal year. Like any other
maiden organization, we had our share of birth pains. We had to be creative
in our desire to introduce the Foundation not only to our alumnae but to the
community as well. We solicited P5,000.00 from many of the batches of alumnae
of SSA-B in order to raise the initial capital requirement of P100,000.00. But
despite the daunting challenges we were faced with, the pioneering group demonstrated
its strong commitment to further explore all possibilities to put up the Foundation.
After the Strategic Planning Session held in Sipalay, Negros Occidental, the
newly-elected Board of Directors was able to define the Foundation’s Mission,
Vision and Values, as well as set our Goals and Objectives. Various committees
were formed to carry out the plans for the Foundation.
The Information and Membership Committee members were successful in their efforts
to disseminate the needed information to the alumnae. We organized several Tea
Parties where we introduced the Foundation’s Mission, Vision, Strategies,
Goals and Programs to the alumnae. This served as an orientation and also gave
us the chance to recruit members, donors and volunteers for our different projects.
These gatherings were not only done in Bacolod but also in Manila.
The Information and Membership Committee also set up a system to assure that
the records of all activities of the Foundation are properly kept. They developed
a Project Documentation Report Kit which also serves as a data bank. Further,
the Foundation’s website <http://www.ssabfoundation.org> was developed
and launched in order to reach our alumnae abroad and to keep the membership
informed on our activities.
The Foundation organized a “Together Dinner”, a joint project with
the St. Scholastica’s Academy Alumnae Association where many noteworthy
alumnae were given recognition for their achievements. It was also during this
“Together Dinner” when we formally launched the St. Scholastica’s
Bacolod Alumnae Foundation. With its successful launching, donations from benevolent
and generous hearts started to pour in.
Classes ’65 and ’66 helped in promoting our “Gifts of the
Heart” Raffle organized by the Finance Committee when they hosted a Tea
Party in August last year. Thus, the raffle proved to be a resounding success
and generated a net profit of about P1,000,000.00. The raffle draw was also
held during the “Together Dinner” in December.
The Pledge Kit project was the idea of the Finance Committee and was launched
during the Tea Party hosted by Classes ’75, ’76, ’77 and ’78.
Each kit costs P27,600.00 and is payable in 12 monthly installments. The kit
is open to interested individuals or groups who wish to contribute to the Foundation.
The committee also successfully solicited donations from prominent families
and organizations amounting to over One Million Pesos. Proceeds of most of these
fundraising activities were put in the Foundation’s seed fund. The Foundation
aims to raise a sizable amount for the seed fund so that its interest could
eventually fund our administrative costs and some of our projects.
Other projects of the Finance Committee included the fashion show dubbed “Vestida”
that featured celebrities Richard Gomez with wife Lucy Torres and Mandy Ochoa.
Staged t the Grand Ballroom of the Bacolod Convention Plaza Hotel last July,
the show generated an estimated income of P213,000.00 which the Foundation has
earmarked for our Teachers’ Development Program.
As part of the continuing education of the SSA-B faculty, the Teachers’
Development Committee invited Mr. Al Melgar to talk on social graces and how
to manage parents and guardians who have complaints regarding the students.
The committee aims to provide continuing education to the teachers of SSA-B.
This committee is currently coordinating with the faculty of SSA-B in assessing
the needs of the teachers so that we can conduct the appropriate seminars needed
this summer.
The Foundation was able to receive donations of over P400,000.00 from generous
supporters to fund the projects of its Education Committee. This school year,
we provided scholarships to two deserving, qualified and less-privileged grantees—one
taking up an education course at West Negros College and a high school student
at SSA-B. Of the total budget allotted for education, P23,537.15 went to the
tuition fees of these grantees. However, the project which aims to educate handicapped
indigents has not yet been actualized but a fund for this purpose has already
been set up.
Another project of the Education Committee was to raise funds for the Holy Family
Vocational High School (HFVHS), run and subsidized by the Benedictine sisters
in Bacolod City. The school needed the amount of P214,574.04 to sustain its
operations. We were able to inform the alumnae about the plight of the school
in all our orientations and the efforts appeared to be very fruitful. A kind-hearted
alumna donated P100,000.00 and Class ’79, the Silver Jubilarians for the
year also donated P200,000.00 to the school. The remaining balance, amounting
to P14,574.04 was obtained from the endowment fund of the Foundation.
The Health Committee was probably the busiest and most active committee this
year. Its Give A Life Project which aims to protect elementary and pre-school
children from diseases by providing them with vaccination has assisted nine
schools in the province. In line with the government’s campaign for “Ligtas
Tigdas”, the members of the Health Committee assisted in the immunization
of 1,259 school children against Measles. Despite the limited budget to purchase
vaccines, the committee members were able to provide 650 children with the DPT
vaccine which immunizes against Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus and 206 children
with the HIB vaccine which prevents meningitis. After discovering that many
of the children were also suffering from worm infestation, the committee decided
to include deworming in their immunization activities. Also conducted during
this period were seminars on Breast Cancer Awareness and Violence Against Women
and Children, and the eye screening of 402 Grade Six students.
The Save A Life Project which aims to provide assistance to pediatric patients
in government hospitals was able to serve nineteen patients suffering from varied
diseases like Leukemia, Pneumonia, Guillain Baire Syndrome and others. The Foundation
received two grants from a U.S.-based foundation. A portion of the first grant
of about $15,000.00 funded the Give A Life Project’s HIB vaccine but the
majority of the fund was restricted for the Save A Life Project. The second
grant funded the purchase of much needed medical equipment for the pediatric
Intensive Care Unit of C.L. Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.
Another worthy achievement of the Health Committee was the Aloha Medical Mission.
Our Foundation, through the Health Committee, served as the local counterpart
of the Aloha Medical Mission Group of Hawaii, USA in facilitating the Aloha
Medical Mission at the Jose Locsin Memorial Provincial Hospital and the Civic
Center in Silay City, Negros Occidental. This project aimed to provide free
medical consultation and surgery for the indigents of the province. We prepared
the logistical requirements, coordinated with the local government and non-government
institutions involved, screened the indigents, recruited volunteers and solicited
funds for this project. Our Aloha team brought in some medicines, medical and
surgical supplies, and surgical equipment and shouldered all their travel and
accommodation expenses. The Foundation provided the meals for the local working
and medical team, funded the pre-operating laboratory tests required for the
surgery patients, and others. The local governments of Silay and the surrounding
towns assisted the Foundation with most of the information dissemination, transportation
expenses and meals of beneficiaries and other manpower and logistical requirements.
The Mayor of Silay City also provided for the meals of the Aloha team. There
were 53 doctors, nurses and staff in the Aloha team. While the local group consisted
of 81 doctors, 96 nurses, 5 midwives, over 100 alumnae volunteers and government
staff. The mission lasted for five days and we were able to provide medical
consultations to 4,160 beneficiaries, 1,828 of which were pediatric cases and
2,332 of which were adult cases. Our doctors performed 224 minor surgeries,
113 surgeries for Ophthalmology, 17 surgeries for OB-Gynecology and 111 cases
of General Surgery. We also provided the patients with free medicines. The Aloha
Medical Mission truly made an impact in the province of Negros Occidental by
providing much needed medical care to the poorest of the poor who, more often
than not, cannot afford these medical procedures and medicines.
The Health Committee had the most number of alumnae volunteers and was able
to heighten the awareness and cooperation of many of our members. Through the
assistance of the Finance Committee, we were able to raise over 1.6 Million
Pesos for the projects of the Health Committee.
The Training and Development Committee initially focused their efforts to raise
funds for their projects by providing training programs for a fee to our members.
They conducted two cooking demonstrations featuring alumnae members as the facilitators.
The demos were well attended and generated over P25,000.00. Other fundraising
activities were the football clinics offered to students of SSA-B and children
of alumnae. The committee has had three clinics-- the first for School Year
2003-2004 which realized revenue of P94,178.00; the second for the summer of
2004 which generated revenue of P55,000.00; and the third for School Year 2004-2005
which is ongoing. The proceeds of these activities were used to fund the training
and development projects for indigents.
The Livelihood Skills Training for Indigents project was able to facilitate
two trainings by tapping existing foundations as conduits. The first was a Reflexology
Training which was conducted in coordination with the Sugar Industry Foundation,
Inc. (SIFI) and the Simag Foundation that benefited 23 indigents. The second
was the Hair Cutting and Make-over Seminar for 30 indigents which was facilitated
with the help of the Kabulig Foundation. Most of the trainings were geared towards
self-help and the development of livelihood skills that did not require a substantial
capital.
The Sports/Youth Skills Training project for indigents focused on providing
soccer clinics to public school students. In School Year 2003-2004, the committee
developed a football program in Andres Bonifacio Elementary School (ABES) by
providing them with trainers and coaches every Saturday. We also gave them soccer
equipment like soccer balls, goals and uniforms. Through the assistance of the
Negros Occidental Football Association (NOFA), the teachers at ABES were able
to attend a coaches training program. The Foundation also provided the teams
with venues to compete with others by organizing Football Festivals, invitational
games and by joining leagues sponsored by other organizations. Twenty-nine students
were able to participate in our football clinic in ABES. For the current school
year, we are continuing our program at ABES but we have also started a similar
one in Emilia Gonzaga Elementary School at Alijis, Bacolod City where we are
training twenty-five students.
The Training and Development Committee also funded the Seniors’ Retreat
of the Holy Family Vocational High School. This is in line with their committee’s
objective to provide Values Education projects to the less-privileged.
In one year and six months, our Foundation has achieved more than anyone of
us had ever expected. By God’s grace, with the support and cooperation
of our member alumnae, and with the commitment and dedication of our Board of
Directors and Committee Heads, we have accomplished or even surpassed most of
the original objectives set. We have raised over Four Million Pesos (P4,000,000.00)
for our seed fund and our various projects and have served over 6,500 beneficiaries.
We acknowledge though that we have so many challenges ahead and that we must
continually work for the sustainability and improvement of our organization
in order to reach out to even more of our less-privileged brothers and sisters.
We are all committed to take on these challenges and this was evident in our
efforts and accomplishments for the past one and a half years. Inspired by our
Mission and Vision and guided by our faith in God and our values, we will persevere
in our works of charity and service. For in this past year, we have put our
words into action and we truly believe that it will take the best in each of
us to make the best world for all of us.
MA. PILAR L. MENDEZONA
President