More than 15 years ago, the Simbayanan ni Maria Foundation, Inc. was founded with the noble intention of helping to build a brighter future for Taguig City. Through the leadership of Rev. Fr. Anton CT Pascual, then-parish priest of the Holy Rosary Parish of Lower Bicutan, a social services arm for the Parish was created to provide concrete educational and socio-economic opportunities for the community.
Rev. Fr. Pascual started a scholarship program that would sponsor the education of the deserving yet underprivileged youth of Taguig. It was his hope that the program would eventually sustain the educational needs of at least one family member for every indigent family in the area. He believed spiritual formation and practical education to be the keys to a better, fuller life for everyone, and he envisioned this for all his parishioners.
Yet he recognized that it was something no man can do alone. Fr. Pascual solicited the support of many individuals and families who believe they had a stake in the future of their less fortunate brothers and sisters and who were willing to answer the call to help.
Among those who answered his call for assistance were the couple, Rafael “Boy” Dizon, Jr. and his wife Shalene who are devout Catholics and committed philanthropists.
This working together of people devoted to serving the Lord is what eventually paved the way for the formation of a Christ-centered organization by which all His hopes for the community could be realized on a broader scale.
Thus, the Simbayanan ni Maria Foundation was born. Simbayanan represents the coming together of the Church or Simbahan and the Community or Bayan in order to reach a common goal: dignity for every human person as created by God.
Since then, the Dizon family has continuously dedicated themselves to the causes of the Foundation and has shown their unwavering support for many of its initiatives. By the grace of God, this, along with partnerships with other interest groups, pledges from other private citizens, as well as sound financial management, have kept the fire of hope burning for Simbayanan and the Taguigenos who continue to benefit from its existence.
Since its inception in the early 90s, the Foundation has lived by its vision of “total human development and social transformation of its members and beneficiaries.” This is further concretized by its Mission Statement: To empower the Simbayanan ni Maria Community through a sustaining and sustained program of values formation, technical education, socio-economic opportunities and an integrated cooperative system for its members and beneficiaries, and the community of Taguig.
Under this banner, along with its Objectives and Guiding Principles, the Simbayanan ni Maria has launched and implemented various projects.
Its flagship program, the College Scholarship Program has been the jewel that carved the Foundation into the hearts of the people of Taguig. It has been its most sustained program and so far, the longest running. In 2006, the Foundation was able to cater to the educational needs of 26 youth from 18 barangays and has facilitated the graduation of more than 500 program beneficiaries since 1991. The program has also produced numerous cum laudes and academic excellence awardees from among its many scholars.
The Foundation also granted vocational scholarships to deserving community women in 2002-2003, partnering with New Era College (for a care giving course) as well as with Don Bosco Makati for short-term technical courses for others. A total of 69 scholars were enrolled for both programs.
Among its other social services programs, the Foundation has also initiated its own Health Program where the services of private health professionals are tapped and are brought to communities where they are needed most. Medical missions have consistently been conducted both for health promotion and treatment within the Taguig area.
Special programs are also continuously launched by the Foundation, in line with the realization of its goals and objectives as a social organization. Since its founding, a micro-lending program has been on-going, as initiated by the Foundation, with a special partnership with the Gregorio Araneta Social Development Foundation in order to raise the initial capital of 23,000 php back in 1996.
The program is now diligently continued by its sister organization, the Simbayanan ni Maria Development Cooperative (SMDC). In fact, the program now prides itself with having established a membership of 10,000 individuals with a total loan portfolio of more than 200 Million Pesos.
More minor programs have been implemented by the Foundation such as the Job Placement Program that has helped almost 14,000 job seekers find employment.
An annual summer sports fest – The Simbayanan Cup – was also held from 1998 to 2001 in order to encourage camaraderie among the youth, discipline and perseverance. It is part of the Foundation’s youth development and drug prevention programs.
Aside from these, programs for the well-being and development of Children in Taguig were also sponsored by the Foundation, including those that target the positive formation of the Family as the basic unit in society (Adopt-a-Barangay program, Triple A program, Grades 1,2,3…Heto na Kami program, Taguig Bantay Bata 163).
And lastly, the launch of environmental awareness campaigns, and the provisions for emergency relief assistance.
In order to sustain and launch more programs, the Foundation has actively sought funding from many varied sources. It is not unknown to many that the lifeblood of the Foundation does not only come from the time and effort of its volunteers but also from the people who commit their material blessings for the benefit of the community.
Just last year, a large-scale fund raising effort was launched by the Foundation for the sustenance of its scholarship program --- the 17th anniversary grand raffle, a Toyota Avanza being the grand prize.
Pledges from many concerned, private individuals are also sought. As well as financial assistance coming from Caritas Manila (the social arm of the Archdiocese of Manila) and earnings from the Simbayanan ni Maria Development Cooperative.
With the Simbayanan ni Maria Foundation in existence for more than a decade and a half, and with the desire to make a more lasting and sustained impact on the community, the Board of Directors decided in 2005 that it was time to convert the structure of the Simbayanan into a Community Foundation (CF).
There are a number of motivations for this Change but most primarily, it is driven by the desire to consolidate the efforts of various sectors of the Taguig community for the alleviation of poverty in the local level. As a fund-raising and grant-making institution, the Community Foundation not only is able to carry out its social responsibility towards the community, but also empowers its members to be able to do the same. It becomes then, a vehicle for community-building apart from the envisioned efficiency with which our development goals shall be attained.
Furthermore, as a Christian-Catholic organization, we believe that a shift to CF would naturally promote the spirit of giving and a culture of philanthropy, which is highly consistent with the guidelines of the Foundation.
Lastly and of utmost importance, the shift to CF is also driven by Simbayanan’s desire to realize our vision for long-term sustainability in the development projects implemented within the community. We desire for our impact on the community to be long-term, lasting and dynamic.
However, it has not been easy to convert into a full-pledged CF. There have been many challenges and obstacles and there are also a great many things to be deliberated upon.
One would be to propose changes in the structure of the organization. Since a great majority of our board and staff are volunteers, the expediency of our deliverables and the achievement of our goals are compromised. For instance, we have come to the realization that our management staff should not be members of the board as well for one cannot occupy two very different positions and expect him/her to perform well, and also that the executive director should not be a volunteer, in order for the person to be fully committed to the transition efforts and other initiatives of the CF.
Also in line with the transition efforts, we have identified that the board should not be appointed but elected, and should ultimately be representative of the community we are serving. We are now in the process of conducting meetings and making the necessary revisions to our structure in order to meet these conversion requirements.
A second concern also is a revisiting of our Mission-Vision statement as an organization. A lot of changes have taken place in the last 15 years and we recognize the need for a more relevant and timely guiding statement that would best encapsulate our new objectives and role in Taguig as a Community Foundation.
Furthermore, there is also the concern as to whom would the implementation of projects be passed on. Since many of our members and beneficiaries are depending on these projects, it would not be just to terminate these before an NGO could properly take over them, with the support of the Foundation.
This concern then leads us to an obstacle we have faced since converting into a CF. We have learned that there are no registered and established advocacy-driven NGOs within the community. There are some informal interest groups and some who have been established primarily for political reasons but most of them have not had a strong track record of projects and initiatives implemented which makes our task of grant-giving more challenging.
To address this, we recognize a need to establish the following:
1. Clear guidelines for grant-giving.
2. Awareness campaigns for the grant-giving function of the CF to encourage community-based initiatives that the CF can support.
3. Train and assist in the formation of advocacy-driven groups who will be knowledgeable in professionalized provision of services and programs to the community, who will be potential implementers of the CF in the future.
And lastly, the CF recognizes the need for a more assertive fund-raising effort. There is a need to identify and tap into other sources of funds for the CF and there is a need to market our existence and our initiatives more than we have in the past. We propose to form a separate unit within the organization that would address our social marketing and communications concerns as well as push for greater visibility of the CF within the community and even in the national and global spheres.
In conclusion, we are aware that there is long way to go before the Simbayanan ni Maria achieves full Community Foundation status and exercise its new role in Taguig. We also recognize that our work as an organization, is cut out for us. But after 15 years, Simbayanan’s level of commitment to the Taguigenos has not wavered and within us, remains the fervent desire to be a part of an even larger conversion among our community – a conversion towards dignity, fullness of life for everyone and a deep commitment to service for others and to God.
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