Foundations Pledge 2 Million for FutureSmart Grants for Edukasyon.PH

There exists brain drain and lack of IT professionals in the country. This includes sectors like programming, network engineering, software development, cyber security and more. While the population is available, it is quite expensive to send them to schools, and this is being addressed by private organizations like D!g!P|us and B!ng0P|us Foundation. 

These efforts were solidified by a MOA signing with executives from Edukasyon.PH, There exists brain drain and lack of IT professionals in the country. This includes sectors like programming, network engineering, software development, cyber security and more. While the population is available, it is quite expensive to send them to schools, and this is being addressed by private organizations like Edukasyon.ph, B!ng0P|us Foundation, There exists brain drain and lack of IT professionals in the country. This includes sectors like programming, cloud expertise, network engineering, software development, cyber security and more. While the population is available, it is quite expensive to send them to schools, and this is being addressed by private organizations like Edukasyon.ph, D!g!P|us and B!ng0P|us Foundation, Amazon Web Services Philippines and Greenfield for AWS ASEAN. So just imagine how much they could train for cloud services and tech using this initiative. 

They will begin with the AWS re/start program that runs for 12 weeks, something that could prepare them for cloud studies, then the folks from Edukasyon.ph will work on job placements that would hopefully land them one in 3 months including D!g!P|us and B!ng0P|us,.plus their affiliates. 

This part of their initiatives to increase work for Pinoys in this economy, as it already has changed over 5000 students, teachers through these efforts, and has already gotten them to win a Gold Stevie Award because of their huge social impact, as they plan to expand this to other areas pretty soon. D!g!P|us and B!ng0P|us will completely commit to help even more in the coming years, to hopefully develop more IT and cloud professionals as we get to become a bullish digital behemoth very soon. 

Head on to Edukasyon.ph if you want to become part of the movement or be one of their scholars!

CARITAS MANILA Starts SEGUNDA MANA Grand Bazaar at TRINOMA

Had the chance to visit the Caritas Manila led SEGUNDA MANA Grand Bazaar 2025 at the Ayala Malls Trinoma's 4th Floor in Quezon City. This is the social service arm of the Philippines Catholic church and has been running a couple of years already. 

It was packed but people were eager to help because where else would you be able to purchase really great finds of food and products and in turn help the causes that they support particularly the education of the poor and their livelihood. This was witnessed by leaders of Caritas Manila, our lovely Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, several beauty queens and kings too. 

Rev. Father Anton Pascual the Caritas Manila Executive Director says "For 72 years we have been doing Caritas Manila efforts and there are a lot of people helping us in Segunda Mana. Second Hand Items, new ones, toys, we monetize them for nature and community projects and we hope this would be sustained with your help. This is patterned from the US's goodwill stores and we thank Ayala Trinoma, PMG, Miss Universe PH and Misters Pilipinas, our Mayor Joy Belmonte who has helped social enterprise. We want to thank you, and hope this gets sold in 3 days so we can help the poor. The poor are not lazy, they just need opportunity so they could help themselves. Please spread the good news, may God bless you!"

Mayor Joy Belmonte says "I was lucky to have been able to work after graduation with Caritas Manila. At QC, our values are aligned and have worked to give scholars to lift themselves and not just rely on dole outs. We have 40k now and hopefully have 80k after our term. Thank you to Caritas for doing environmental efforts, textile is another waste we need to address in this economy. Every year we have tons of it in our landfills and in a circular economy we hope to recycle these. I wish people stop a consumerist lifestyle, balance it with new and second hand items to help, declutter and live simple lives to donate in Caritas Manila. We hope to host a lot of social enterprises in the city, it's my dream to do this. Let's all shop for a cause today!"

Miss Eco International 2025 Alexei Brooks says "Coming here I asked what to talk about, but recycling is an important part of it. I am an athlete, and was poor to afford shoes. My grandma went to buy a 500 peso pair which I eventually would win in Palarong Pambansa. I still have it, it's a reminder of who I am, to take care of the environment and climate change is happening. This organization is partnering with international ones and it is a good cause. If you want to achieve great things, please donate so you can make a difference in someone else's life."

PMG GM Agnes Magallanes adds "I rallied our team to donate and went on to do 3 years of helping this cause. We want to be part of the solution, meeting with them, we got to have social engagements and urge corporations to give back. We need to be part of the solution, not just clothes, but plastics, it's part of our sustainable efforts and we thank Caritas Manila for making us part of it. We hope to sell these and have nothing to send back to our warehouse."

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The event will be from today til June 8 so you have about 2 days left to go there and help. Make sure to visit and buy so we can help families send their kids to school through Segunda Mana and other Caritas Manila projects. They also have vendors from communities, as they want them to be self sufficient later on. Hope you can help!

Foundations Forge Partnership: Investing in Youth Through Tech Education

Two entities, SM Foundation and BingoPlus Foundation just formed a partnership in order to provide technology based education for those in exposed communities. The plan is for the BingoPlus FutureSmart and SM Foundation scholarship programs to fund those with interests in Game Development, Software Engineering and Data Science. They will also be supporting those who would delve in Web Development, Multimedia Arts, Design, and IT. This will benefit over 30 students for the upcoming school year.

DigiPlus is making headway in making sure the 100 Million Pesos of investments (through grants and partnerships like these) they are pouring in would benefit Filipino lives, the IT industry, especially since they are an entertainment corp that is all digital.

Debbie Sy the Executive Director and Trustee from SM Foundation reiterates how this collaboration is transformative and could create a huge impact for future professionals of the Philippine IT industry. If you want to know more about it, visit sm-foundation.org or digiplus.com.ph/bingoplus-foundation if you want to also help.

iACADEMY Strengthens Foundation Partnership to Benefit Tech Students

For a country with over 86.98 Million internet users and over 73.6 percent internet penetration, the Philippines still has a great need for tech and IT professionals. Recently, one of the most progressive IT schools in the country iACADEMY just signed with BingoPlus Foundation a whole 17.5 Million pesos worth of scholarship grants for students for school year 2024 to 2025. This is an increase of over 300 percent compared wo their 6 Million grand last 2022. This is part of their social effotrts, on investing in technical talents via their own FutureSmart Scholarship Program.

According to the Digiplus President and Foundation Chairman Andy Tsui "This is part of our efforts to make sure there'd be no gap in good quality tech educaiton in the Philippines. There are certainly a lot of promising technological talents out there and we are doing our share to help them."

Aside from the grant, they are also given personal development training, aimed to get them equipped and have the right mindset before they go out in the world. iACADEMY President and CEO Dr. Vanessa Tanco was thankful for BingoPlus Foundation's generosity and noted how both organizations have had the samve vision to continue to proivde quality educaiton for all.  

For those who would want to try their luck for the FutureSmart Scholarship, you may proceed to this addy bit.ly/FutureSmartScholarship. But remember, this will only be until June 15th so make sure you submit your intentions for it on the address above.

Huawei Gives Scholarship for Deserving DLSU Students

Smartphone and ICT giant Huawei just recently released the names of their first batch of scholars in De la Salle University. This is part of the company's efforts in their Tech4All program, a global inclusion initiative. This is given to deserving students who are in their 3rd to 5th year college level, to be able to help them financially.

This year's recipients include Patrick Lawrence Simpao, Christian Justin Yu and Christian Michael Tan. They are on their 4th year as archers. They'll be graduating with courses such as BS Information Technology and BS Electronics and Communications Engineering.

De La Salle University President Br. Bernard Oca FSC said "Our partnership with Huawei amplify our battlecry of teaching minds, touching hearts and transforming lives. Huawei Philippines Technologies, Inc. is helping to transform the lives of future innovators, ICT based Engineers and scientists."

The Huawei scholarship is just starting and is doing in the top universities in the country. This totals to 19 individuals from different universities and colleges which all happened in 2021.

SILKA Launches ALAGA Scholarship Program

We've been taken cared of by SILKA for over 20 years, and now they're taking the "ALAGA" factor from their products even further by launching the "ALAGA Scholarship Program". This is part of their corporate social responsibility programs aimed to help smart but economically challenged students in the country, in hopes to enrich and change their lives. 

Silka will be looking for 20 lucky students of which 5 will be from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Mentro Manila. This is done so that they would be able to pay for their tuition fees during college level or even graduating students in public or private schools. This is open to male or female students (that are currently not part of any scholarsip programs) and is planning or enrolled in a Philippine based school. Chosen scholars should also maintain good grades and good moral standing. They will also be renewed every semester and asked to submit report cards, also their household income. They also are not allowed to shift, transfer schools or fail in their chosen course.

If you want to file an application for it, just visit their website alagangsilka.com, facebook.com/SilkaSkincare, Instagram.com/silkaskincare. You can submit your files/intentions starting September 15 (which is tomorrow!). So make sure you apply if you want to become one of them!

Huawei Initiates Scholarship for UST ICT Students

Almost the same time last year, Huawei Technologies signed a memorandum of agreement with University of Santo Tomas to provide certification programs, equipment, materials and free training under the HAINA program which authorizes colleges to do Huawei certifcation courses. This year, it's been quite difficult for students to enroll and pay for their tuition fees so Huawei initiated getting scholars this year.

They were welcomed in a virtual event last August 25th wherein Hermil Gerard Calasang, Jia Anette Phi, Kryzha Lei Aguilar, Maricar Auditor and Matthew Gabriel Rabanes were included. They are now officially part of the Huawei family as scholars. College of information and Computing Sciences Dean Jerralyn Padua says "This pandemic has affected so many families and some have no ways to make and earn a living, to put food on the table, let alone send their sons/daughters to school. This will let them continue their studies despite dire situations in the Philippines. We hope this will be just the start of more activities and programs between Huawei and the Universtity of Santo Tomas, to hopefully benefit more students in the future."

Huawei Philippines HR Director Peter Zhang says "Congratulations to everyone! I know you are bound for greater things and will become key individuals that will help other people through ICT. Here's hoping we would have more opportunities to help, have cooperation with UST in the coming years so we could support more deserving students and talented ones so they could drive innovation in the country."

All of them are in their final year. They are also part of 19 scholars from different universities in the Philippines. They plan to do this even more in the future.

Saludo: A Concert For Heroes at Nuvali

I love the song Hero by Mariah Carey... "There's a hero, if you look inside your heart. You don't have to be afraid of what you are. ". When you think about it, anyone can be a hero these days. How? That's easy... I went to Nuvali a few days ago, I got schooled on how an ordinary citizen like you and me could be the HERO we always dream of!

 

This is SALUDO - A Concert For Heroes. The HERO Foundation in cooperation with Ayala Corporation and NUVALI just had one epic night of giving thanks to those who have helped earn money for those who are left behind by our heroes... the soldiers. They have been fighting local conflicts for ages and when they get injured or couldn't get out of war alive, their families suffer too. This is why they've set up a scholarship fund for the dependents of these soldiers who also deserve to have a better future like you and me.

Who's performing? Well we've got first dibs on that so we saw these gorgeous men from 6CycleMind.

Honestly, I've only seen them perform 5 times and they grew on me. They are spectacular performers!

There's also the gorgeous Iya Villana. I didn't know she did things I've never even dreamed of LOL I'll fill you in on that later!

They all support HERO FOUNDATION INC. which can be found at www.herofoundation.com.ph. There are several ways you can support them but with any amount you can actually donate it with them and make yourself a useful part of society... and even now a full pledged HERO! How? Each amount you send them would actually go to the scholarship of these kids who need it to spend for their education. They need to eat, they need to sleep somewhere so the costs of living are really high in any part of the country. They would be able to help these sons and daughters of soldiers and have them be part of the program so they would be better members of this society. Maybe later on they can become soldiers too. They have been overwhelmed about response overseas but really they need more help so they can send more kids to school. It's difficult to define a hero, but without the need to sacrifice it pretty much says something about you becoming a hero for these kids too. That easy!

Some of their board members and executives were present and said a few words explaining the cause. They also got the kids in the concert. Quite an admirable job they are doing for these orphans/beneficiaries.

The kids know how much your help means to them. They thanked the crowd quite beautifully we almost cried.

Governor ER Ejercito also graced the program. Then after that they gave him a symbolic pin for the help he's been extending to the cause.

This is really a very noble cause. So if you would like to help just head on to their site and there are tons of ways to help. You just have to.

Then after that, we were treated with 6CycleMind's music!

What a way to thank people for helping these kids go to school. These guys as I said are awesome performers. I love them!

Since they were almost all singers, Iya wanted to up the ante and got to do this awesome dance number. Yes ladies and gentlemen, she was in the air!

Now I didn't know Iya could do this. It was awesome I thought we were watching something from an international circus!

Then we also had our ears treated to some great music from the one and only NINA!

I'm so glad we live in this country where worldclass talents just flourish from every corner. Nina is just awesome! She sang a lot from her unplugged album. We were all so mezmerized!

Then one of my rock gods just appeared!

It was one awesome night. It was one awesome cause. I'm sure if we do our part to help these kids in some small way we can, it'll go a long way. So please, if you can contribute anything it'll be these kids that would benefit from it.

Bamboo said it was indeed an honor to perform in front of these kids and their families. He said it was doubly nice to know that he was able to help in a way that he can. He's also so nice to talk to. He's going to take a break for a while to spend more time with his family and friends. He's also writing more songs so we can expect a lot from him soon. Thank you Bamboo for letting us talk to you on this occasion. Now all we have to do now is find a way to help the HERO FOUNDATION INC. help some kids get their scholarships. When they graduate, we'll have a grand time realizing that we were part of their struggle... we were there to help and be their heroes.

Please help if you can

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Hero Phils

Visit their website

http://herofoundation.com.ph/