By Melandrew Velasco
October 14, 2023, 12:00 am
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In Better World community centers, activities are undertaken in collaboration with different non-government organizations
Tondo, the largest among districts of Manila, occupies an important place in the annals of the country’s history.
It is also the site of Smokey Mountain which for decades symbolized poverty before it became one of the pilot projects in the government’s war against poverty.
Smokey Mountain was then host to a dumpsite, a receptacle of over two million metric tons of waste, until its closure in the early 1990s.
In the commemorative coffee table book Teamwork for Enduring Peace and Sustainable Development, the 10th anniversary book of RPDev (Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, Inc.) that I authored, I wrote:
“Smokey Mountain, for 45 years before FVR, represented the home of the country’s poorest of the poor. Its stark images of barefoot, bony children naked or in decrepit clothes who lived in shanties on top of the dumpsite, scavenging for bottles, housewares, plastics and even spoiled food evoked the image that abject poverty stalked the land…”
“The Ramos Government constructed 21 five-story typhoon and earthquake proof medium rise condominiums, which could shelter 3.520 families at affordable rates….”
Transforming Smokey Mountain into a vibrant residential-industrial complex was undertaken through the Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project (SMDRP). It was a project to promote sustainable development and people empowerment.
This aspiration for sustainable development and people empowerment has remained to this day and is shared by the country’s leading conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation (SMC). To help attain this, it has undertaken initiatives through its various CSR programs.
This year, as it celebrates its 133th anniversary, SMC through the SMC Foundation inaugurated its fifth community center.
The community centers manifest SMC’s unwavering commitment to nation-building and in helping uplift the lives of more Filipinos.
At the launch, SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said the widening skills gap in the country’s disadvantaged communities that hinders their progress is a critical challenge.
RSA is no stranger to Tondo, having spent his younger years in the district.
“Our goal is to equip our Tondo beneficiaries with essential skills, instill in them a growth mindset, and a vision of a brighter future. By providing these families the opportunity to upskill, we hope to ultimately boost their income levels, decrease unemployment, elevate overall living standards, and help them realize inter-generational change,” RSA said.
Located in Tondo, the community center called Better World Smokey Mountain is a venue for learning and skills development.
It is a 3, 700-square-meter facility consisting of a four-story building that houses 39 modern classrooms. It also has two playgrounds, a cafeteria, and computer, arts, music and training rooms.
Target beneficiaries of the Better World Smokey Mountain are about 2,500 families, around 12,500 individuals from Tondo.
One way to fully harness the country’s labor force is to provide training to the unskilled and upskill the skilled workers aside from inculcating greater respect for blue collar jobs.
Thus, SMC has collaborated with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to train manpower who can be employed in the company’s different projects or can become entrepreneurs.
Training people for productive endeavors contributes to nation-building.
It is also a way of ensuring that every Filipino in the labor force becomes employable; and each home is self-sufficient in goods and income so its members could enjoy comfortable and decent lives.
It was in 2019 when SMC introduced its first community center, the Better World Tondo Center.
It aims to make food accessible to the poorest barangays of Manila and serves as a learning facility to help improve the lives of children of Tondo.
In Better World community centers, activities are undertaken in collaboration with different non-government organizations.
For the Better World Smokey Mountain, SMC is partnering with AHA Learning Center, Upskills+ Foundations Inc., Project Pearls, Sandiwaan Center for Learning Inc., and Tulay sa Pag-Unlad Inc.
By 2030, SMC aims to uplift the lives of 15 million Filipinos.
I congratulate SMC as it celebrates its 133th anniversary.
Likewise, to RSA who has steered the conglomerate to where it is today and has not forgotten to think beyond business to promote the interest of the nation.
(The author, a book author and publisher, is president and chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and also the president and executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection.)