Hello & good afternoon to you all. For those who do not know me, my name is Kirk Inocencio. I am here today to present my proposal to found an international-scale aid effort to aid the people of the Philippines.
Let me start with a little background information. I had the opportunity to visit the Philippines this past summer for a month. I also had the extra benefit of traveling alone. Traveling by myself gave me the opportunity to stay with relatives from different provinces and towns, so I would be able to see the many different cultural aspects of the Philippines. Just to give you an overview, I visited the many shrines dedicated to the national heroes of the country, such as Emilio Aguinaldo and Jose Rizal; I toured various museums and historical sites in Manila and Iloilo; I visited many of the colleges there such as De La Salle University, UP Los Banos & Visayas, Iloilo State College of Fisheries, Central Philippine University, etc; I had the chance to teach two college classes regarding the differences / similarities between the US and PI; I was a guest speaker a ISCOF and spoke on the subject of Why to Get Involved in school in front of 500 students; I visited the province of Laguna in Manila and saw how various specialties and products were made, such as barongs and handicrafts; I visited a couple farms and got to cultivate one of the rice fields; I climbed to the top of a coconut tree; I rode on a caribou, the infamous national animal of the PI; I went mountaineering and explored a cave in the Leon mountain range; I was a guest judge at a fashion show; I bonded with family and relatives; I ate various native foods; I watched different cultural dances and showcases; I attended BLD Jaro worship meetings & proposed the PUSO idea there; I met many new and interesting people; and of course, I strolled around the SM mall and got a couple of their clever shirts. That overview I just gave you is the “Why I wanted to visit the Philippines” in a nutshell – to see what the motherland had to offer that I had not already seen during my last visit.
Certainly a lot of my fondest memories are what I did within that one month time span. But equally as memorable are the things I witnessed & experienced – many of which were not too fond. I just had to walk around to see things such as the poverty and government corruption. Now, as many of you know the economy of the Philippines is far from being stable. It hasn’t been for the past couple of decades. Those who have visited the Philippines have a first-hand glimpse of that fact. People are still poor, struggling to survive and very little is being done to alleviate that issue. It makes you ask where the government is in all of this. Oh, that’s right. They’re enjoying the taxpayer’s money and living in their extravagant houses.
Education is obviously not a priority to the government. There’s no program established that provides benefits to families that can’t afford school supplies. Some families in barangays are forced to make book bags out of plastics, just so that their kids can carry their books to school. Some kids don’t even have that “luxury”: they have to lug all of their heavy books in their hands. My tita told me that in some barangays, kids have to walk about 5 km to get to school. Just imagine: walking to school every day with 10 lbs books in your hands – in 95 degree weather.
My tita was also telling me that she knows a couple of people from less well-off barangays, and according to her some kids lack the necessary school supplies for class. She was telling me that some kids don’t even bring notebooks or, much worse, writing utensils. This is a really big issue because these very kids with no school supplies will be the ones to lead the Philippines, and hopefully bring the country out of poverty. But how can they attain the necessary knowledge to do so without the necessary tools?
There’s also a problem concerning technology in schools. We all know that technology is how humanity will prosper and progress – you know, computers, the mass media, etc. Thing is, the Philippines is way behind when it comes to technological progress. I don’t know the exact statistics, but I know more than 75% of the Philippine population does not own nor know how to use a computer. If a school is lucky, they’ll have about five computers within the school. But according to my tita, families have to pay a monthly fee of about P250. That may seem incredibly cheap for people in the US, but this is the Philippines we’re talking about here.
The economic issue is blatantly obvious in the Philippines. I can show you the hundreds of pictures I’ve taken of the terrible conditions in the Philippines. I can show you the countless street venders that struggle to make money. I can show you the dozens of squatter housing developments and their houses made up of scrap metal, cardboard, and bamboo & coconut trees. I can show you the dozens of beggars on the street. But I don’t think you’ll be able to get the full emotional impact unless one experiences it first-hand. As I always say, “You don’t know, till you KNOW.”
With that being said, I think that after seeing so much poverty and suffering, there was something that triggered in my head. After I did all the KNOWING I could handle, I had this vision. Not one of those crazy, mentally insane visions – one of those, “I’m inspired, now I’m having a vision” visions. I think it was when I attended mass one day over there; my mind was just engulfed in an idea to help out my fellow people. So I dwelled on the idea the whole mass, and it wasn’t till July 19 that I actually put my vision into tangible writing. In my journal, I wrote VISION: a better & more prosperous environment in which the Philippine & American community works together to provide a brighter future for PI students. MISSION / PURPOSE: To provide aid such as books & school supplies to the students of the Philippines from donations offered by Youth Group / community members. To provide an opportunity for students, both American & Filipino, to become more involved in the war against the Philippine poverty & help the less well-off communities. Then I continue talking about the different prospects & branches, expenses, the step-by-step procedure to get this to work, different position descriptions, everything BUT the name. It was a couple nights later that I finally came up with the name. After going through 10-15 names, I arrived at the perfect one: P.U.S.O. – Philippine United Service Organization. Puso is Tagalog for heart, heart is the symbol of love, and certainly P.U.S.O.’s efforts are being done out of love.
Now all of you may be wondering “How does P.U.S.O. work? The idea sounds feasible, but what’s actually going to happen?” I have prepared a PowerPoint here to accompany the explanation. So first and foremost, I have to propose the P.U.S.O. idea to different youth groups, such as BLD and/or YFC. P.U.S.O. will have a number of youth group branches established within the NJ-NY-PA tri-state area. I will have to personally contact the head coordinators of the youth group branches and ask if they would be interested in participating in the international-scale aid effort. If the coordinators approve of my plan, we will proceed to arrange a proposal date to inform the youth of the effort. I will then propose the P.U.S.O. effort to the youth and ask for their feedback. If the youth group supports the efforts, I will ask for volunteers to lead their branch. A number of administrative positions must be filled to assure effective organization. A branch CEO will represent each youth group along with subdivision leaders, a financial & shipping manager, photographer, and youth group coordinator. Let me explain each position’s responsibility before going any further.
CEO: Manages all Branch CEO Members. Responsible for explaining the goals of PUSO adequately to Branch CEO Members. Supervises fundraiser / donation events and brainstorms with Branch CEO & subdivision leaders. Receives and keeps track of the collective expenses & funds. Keeps track of the Balikbayan Box Service progress & the deliveries. Acts as the primary intermediary between US & PI communication. Collaborates with CEOs overseas and determines where shipments go & who receives them.
Branch CEO: Manages subordinates directly underneath him/her: subdivision leaders; shipping manager; financial manager; relations coordinator. Responsible for frequently communicating with the other officials. Supervises fundraiser / donation events and brainstorms with CEO & subdivision leaders. Possesses records of the expenses & funds for his/her respective branch. Keeps track of shipping & has an inventory of the contents of boxes. Makes sure the relations coordinator communicates with the youth frequently to remind him/her to get the youth involved. Responsible for keeping frequent contact with the CEO and reporting progress and/or issues.
Subdivision Leader: Manages subordinates underneath him/her: shipping manager, financial manager, volunteer team. Responsible for organizing fundraiser/donation events in his/her designated area. Collaborates with CEO & Branch CEO to determine the logistics of the fundraiser/donation event (who, what, where, when, how, why). Responsible for contacting the necessary people to make fundraiser/donation events work.
Shipping Manager: Manages Balikbayan boxes contents & distribution to the Philippines. Creates an inventory report of the donated items & sorts out the items accordingly. Responsible for contacting the Balikbayan box transportation service & shipping the box out to the Philippines. Responsible for providing the Branch CEO, subdivision leaders, and financial manager with an inventory report, shipping expenses, and any other information regarding the shipment.
Financial Manager: Manages expenses & funds received after each youth group meeting and/or fundraiser event. Responsible for recording all donations onto the financial reports. Holds money funds and provides the shipping manager with money for shipping expenses or any other proposed project. Responsible for forwarding the financial report to the Subdivision Leader (if applicable), Branch CEO, and CEO.
Relations Coordinator: Encourages youth community members to actively contribute in the PUSO efforts. Encourages youth to bring goods and/or money to donate. Informs community members of volunteering opportunities at fundraiser/donation events. Responsible for advertising upcoming fundraiser/donation events around his/her community.
Photographer: Takes pictures of the service & donations rendered. Responsible for uploading pictures online. Manages pictures online.
Website Manager: Receives all inventory & financial reports, testimonials, and information on new branches and posts them on PUSO Online. Responsible for updating PUSO Online so that the public may access any records that PUSO has
Each individual administrative & subdivision leader will personally meet with me in order to assure competency & complete understanding of their position. Once that is established, each youth group branch and subdivision leader will receive one Balikbayan box (or more) to fill with donated school supplies, books, computers, etc. There will be one box issued for each youth group meeting. Youth group members will have the opportunity to donate money and extra clothing and/or school supplies, book bags, sports equipment, etc. to schools in the Philippines. Another box will be issued to the subdivision leaders. The subdivision leaders will organize their own fundraiser / donation events and collect donations in their designated area. The type of fundraiser they will partake in (food sale, car wash, sports competition, etc.) will be determined in a meeting with the other head coordinators and myself. There will also be an adult overseer that will guide the subdivision leaders and volunteers. Once the boxes are filled, the shipping manager will contact the other head coordinators and myself. We will then contact the participating Philippine youth groups and determine which school will receive the goods, according to priority. Once the destination of the box is confirmed, the shipping manager will contact the balikbayan box service, request a discount from the service (if possible), and then make an inventory of the box contents. Next, in order to pay for the shipping expenses, we will ask the youth or an adult couple to sponsor a box. The shipping manager will handle the money and then pay the balikbayan box service shipping fee.
After everything is settled, the balikbayan box service will handle the goods and ship them overseas. This process will take 1-2 months, so organizing fundraisers and planning future shipments will occur during this time. The Balikbayan Boxes will be received by a participating youth group in the Philippines. The youth will meet up at a designated place and claim the box of goods. They will then proceed to distribute the goods to schools, according to the needs of the students. The branch’s photographer, as well as a professional photographer will accompany the school or youth group and take pictures of the event. The branch CEO will do a final report of the event and ask the volunteers to write testimonials about their experiences. The photographs, testimonials, and final report will be forwarded to the CEO, who will review all forwarded content and inform all branch CEOs of its success. All information received from the Philippines will be available to the public as soon as possible via the PUSO website.
Okay, so you all have a pretty clear understanding of the WHO, the WHAT, the WHERE, the WHEN, and the HOW of P.U.S.O. However, I don’t think I touched upon the WHY aspect. WHY did I decide to follow through with such a huge and almost-impossible idea? Well, first and foremost, I realized that someone needed to step up and help the Philippines on a much larger organizational scale. I witnessed & experienced so much of the hardships of the Philippine people that I was suddenly instilled with this desire to make revolutionary changes in the world. Secondly, I felt that teenagers have such a great potential to make positive contributions to the world – all they need is an opportunity to unleash it. P.U.S.O. will create new leaders in today’s world that will work in collaboration with teenagers overseas to attain new heights of creativity and interdependency. It focuses greatly on empowering teenagers and giving them critical decision-making power – because look at it, P.U.S.O. was established by a teenager and will be run by teenagers. What’s great about P.U.S.O. is not only the fact that it helps out Philippines in its entirety, but the fact that students, both from the US & Philippines, have the opportunity to work together on an international scale to provide a greater future for the Philippines. P.U.S.O. all came from one vision: a vision to somehow help the Philippines out of poverty. I know for certain that we can achieve this vision if we are given the opportunity to follow through with our plans. With your support, we can create new opportunities and chances for the future leaders of the world. Thank you for your time, and God bless.