Telus International Philippines supports six more NGOs

MANILA, Philippines - The Community Board of Telus International Philippines recently gave its next batch of grants to six non-government organizations (NGOs) as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative.

During a ceremony held at Balcony II of the New World Hotel, the TIP Community Board, led by vice chair of the board of directors and TIP Community Board chairman Javier Infante, distributed CAD$10,000 to six outstanding charities. These were the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Rizal Chapter, Project Pearls, Unang Lingap Kapwa Philippines, Inc. (ULKPI), Empowering Communities with Hope and Opportunities through Sustainable Initiatives (ECHOsi) Foundation, Alay Pag-asa Christian Foundation, Inc., and Childhope Asia Philippines, Inc.

Telus International Philippines is a leading provider of cost-effective, high-quality call center outsourcing services and IT solutions for customer care, sales, technical support, market research, back-office support, IT development and business process outsourcing. After the initial grant of $10,000 given to Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group or PhilStage this past August, TIP made it known that they were still looking for other organizations that needed their help. These six recipients emerged from the many charities that applied.

The Philippine Red Cross is a non-stock and non-profit organization that mainly deals in combating disasters through preventive training, actual disaster responses, community health and welfare services, and ensuring an adequate blood supply to the community. Thus, the need for Antipolo City and South Rizal Branch to conduct fundraising activities throughout the year to enable it to serve the ever-increasing demand for aid and assistance by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the communities.

Project Pearls, which runs a Learning Center at Ulingan or Sitio Damayan in Tondo, Manila, also holds their weekly outreach programs there. The community has over 400 families, of which over a thousand are children up to age 17. Ulingan sits on a garbage dumpsite next to Manila Bay. They would like to give more aid to the community of Ulingan by rebuilding and/or repairing their damaged homes, providing a medical mission, repairing and/or replacing the Learning Center, donation of school furniture and school supplies, donation of footwear (specifically rain boots), providing more groceries to the families, and a massive cleanup of garbage washed ashore from Manila Bay.

Unang Lingap Kapwa Philippines Inc. (ULKPI) was established in October 1990 as the Quezon City sponsorship operating agency of Children International, a humanitarian organization helping needy children in 11 countries through child sponsorship. Around 19,000 sponsored children and youth benefit from the services and programs that ULKPI implements in their six community centers located in Quezon City, Manila, Malabon and Caloocan.

ECHOsi Foundation is a non-profit organization that teaches sustainability issues for empowering marginalized groups, women groups and cultural communities. ECHOsi Foundation is the partner of ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle, a pioneering social enterprise/ retail store focused on fair trade products made by small communities, as well as environmentally friendly green products.

Established in 1990, Alay Pag-asa Christian Foundation, Inc. embarked on community development and successfully organized communities, linking them to available resources and interventions for social progress, thus making its contribution to deter the influx of street children. Alay Pag-asa is committed to facilitate transformation that will effect change and development in children, families and communities, where spiritual nurturing and values transformation become an integral part of its program development initiatives.

Childhope Asia is a non-government, non-profit organization that helps hundreds of street children in various districts of Metro Manila. Through Childhope’s banner program, the Outreach and Protection/ Education on the Streets, the street children are provided protection from abuse, opportunities to develop knowledge about their rights and responsibilities and the risks encountered on the streets, develop positive behavior, gain/ improve their life skills and capacities, and eventually assist them to leave the streets through referral to recovery centers or to relatives who are not the child’s abusers.

Echoing Telus International Philippines’ commitment to its philosophy “we give where we live,” Infante praised the six charitable organizations for their individual advocacies while reiterating TIP’s commitment to assisting them. Each charity applied for one-time funding for projects in the areas of health and wellness, education and sports, and arts and culture. In turn, the TIP Community Board will distribute up to CAD$100,000 to local charities annually.

The formal turnover of the grant from TIP to the six NGOs at New World Hotel featured representatives from each organization sharing what they stood for while thanking Telus International Philippines for its generosity. Joining Infante from the Telus side were TIP president Jeffrey Uthoff, TIP Community Board vice chair Warren Tait, TIP Community Board member Joy Virata, and Bodge Calica of TIP Community Investment Prime.

Asked what Echosi Foundation thought of the grant from TIP, board member Reena Francisco happily stated that, “Words cannot express how grateful we are for this assistance that Telus International Philippines has given us. Our happiness over this grant is only matched by our excitement to truly make a difference in the lives of our beneficiaries and that help would not be possible if not for the kindness of TIP.”

For their part, Lemuel Bonette, youth program coordinator, said, “We at Unang Linggap Kapwa see the donation of $10,000 as no small thing. For an international company such as Telus International Philippines to be so generous and giving to so many organizations including ours, that’s taking the terms ‘giving back’ to the next level.”

“Telus International Philippines is proud to help these six organizations and the noble goals that each of them want to attain,” said TIP president Uthoff. “At TIP, we want to lend a hand to Filipinos whether through education, sustainability, affecting change in communities, rebuilding homes, and the other advocacies that these NGOs represent.”

Eleven Telus Community Boards in Canada distribute more than $5.3 million dollars a year to community projects. Since their inception in 2005, Telus Community Boards have contributed more than $30 million and supported more than 2,300 community projects.

To apply for TELUS International Philippines Community Board funding, visit www.telus.com/community or www.telusinternational.com.ph.