Singapore Air hikes scholarship
giving
Businessmirror.com
SINGAPORE Airlines recently gave out free tickets to 80
children—their tickets out of abuse.
“Someday, some of you will
become teachers, politicians or even airplane pilots. Hopefully,
one or more will work with us and say ‘I was a SIA scholar,’” SIA
Ltd. Philippines station manager Kevin Tan told 35 of the new batch
of children the airline awarded with scholarships for primary
education for school year 2010-2011.
With the other 45—in
Bicol, Cebu and Davao—Singapore’s flagship carrier’s grants brings
it to nearly 900 children. They are as young as 4 and as old as 18,
who were rescued from physical or sexual abuse or abandonment by
the Bantay Bata program of ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.
“Though there are many
poor children needing this kind of help, we think the kids of
Bantay Bata may need a little bit more, considering what they went
through,” SIA marketing communication and services manager Rita Dy
told the BusinessMirror.
While she declined to
admit it, Dy has been the advocate for this SIA program, which has
become the airline’s expression of corporate social responsibility
for eight years running.
“They went to us at a time
when we really needed help in innovative services for children we
rescued,” Girlie Aragon of ABS-CBN Foundation told the
BusinessMirror.
Aragon, program deputy
director of the Lopez family’s philanthropy group, said that SIA
“didn’t just write a check and left the money to us.”
The check was for P5
million, which sponsored the elementary education of children.
By the seventh year, in
2009, SIA has sponsored a total of 815 grants: 352 in Manila; 222
in Bantay Bata’s Children’s Village in Norzagaray, Bulacan; 156 in
Davao; 84 in Cebu; and, one in Bicol.
Of these, 118 graduated
from elementary school.
For the new batch on the
program’s eighth year, Dy said they are giving P1 million more.
Aragon said the grant
covered uniforms, school supplies, miscellaneous school fees for
field trips and school projects, meals and transportation.
Each child gets a P1,000
cash allowance, given to their guardian or parent every month.
The change in behavior of
children is noticeable, Aragon said, since “they know that somebody
is backing them up.”
She added that the
children and their parents worry less on their next meal or getting
to school or having a notebook and pen.
“They are more focused on
their studies. Some of the children even graduated with honors,”
Aragon said, noting that only two were unable to continue with
studying because one teenager got pregnant while another struggled
with the psychological scars of abuse.
“Remember these are
children that went through very, very difficult experiences. It
takes a lot of hard work to make them appreciate life more than to
keep them in school.”
Knowing they helped Bantay
Bata accomplish these tasks are some of the intangible benefits to
SIA, Dy said, which is why despite the business downturn, she
ensures a budget is allocated for the program.
“Even when the numbers
were down; when revenue was bad, especially in the last two years,
we still try to find a way to continue helping.”
Indeed, the airline wasn’t
spared from the financial crisis that hit the world beginning with
the economic recession of the United States in 2008.
Based on the airline’s
financial statement submitted to the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), consolidated profit for fiscal year ended March
2009 dropped 46.33 percent to $1.146 billion.
Improved sales of its
operations in its Europe and Southwest Pacific areas, however,
propped up the big revenue declines in East Asia and Americas.
Sales only dipped by less
than a percent (0.89 percent) to $15.17 billion in the airlines’
2008-2009 fiscal year.
“We try to give even when
we can’t afford to give,” Dy said.
She added that tax rebates
and the good image the donations reflect on SIA—“clients love us
for that; we’re getting very good feedback”—are significant but not
reasons why they continue donating for scholarships.
To note, the recipient,
ABS-CBN Foundation, is exempt from income tax.
Five years ago, the group
created Bantay Bata (child watch) Endowment Trust Fund that the
foundation told the SEC it uses “for endeavors dedicated to the
protection of children and the youth.”
The allowance for decline
in value of marketable equity securities held by the trustee bank
managing the investments amounted to P2.733 million and P1.7
million as of December 31, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Bantay Bata was
established as a hot-line child-rescue service that has evolved to
provide comprehensive direct children services for abused children,
from rescue and rehabilitation (therapy and counseling) to
“reintegration.”
The program maintains a
home for rescued children and a “Children’s Village” in Norzagaray,
Bulacan.