ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, a social advocacy arm of ABS-CBN, recently celebrated its 15th foundation anniversary through a heartfelt program that included recognizing some of Bayan’s client entrepreneurs and partners in many of its social advocacies and reform endeavors. The event’s theme was “Moving Forward towards Bayan’s Social and Economic Mission.”
It was also the perfect venue to launch the book Entreprise Development, Growth and Evolution (Text and Cases), edited and written by Dr. Eduardo Morato Jr., Bayan Foundation president, and Bayan Academy president Raul IE Manikan and some of the foundation’s staff, which documented the foundation’s experiences in the course of its 15 years’ involvement in microenterprise development.  It also included the launching of the 2nd Excellence in Educational Transformation Awards (EETA).
The program started with a video presentation, which tracked down the organization’s beginnings, from being a micro-lending institution known as the ABS-CBN Foundation, which for many years helped more than 45,000 fledgling and aspiring entrepreneurs build lives through a system of lending small loans.  The organization also found itself at a rough path, at the time when micro-finance experienced a meltdown not only in the Philippines but also in countries where it all began, Bangladesh and India.  It almost found itself on the verge of closure due to these difficulties.
When Morato entered the picture as a consultant, there was a change in direction of the foundation, from one that is focused on micro-finance to that of entrepreneurship education and training.  Recognizing that true progress occurs when there is proper education among micro-entrepreneurs, another organization, the Bayan Academy, was established to provide opportunities to micro-entrepreneurs through courses and endeavors that also involved partnerships with various institutions and agencies, both government and private.  Hence, ABS-CBN Foundation and Bayan Academy combined the best practices and ideas to become the ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, combining the best practices and ideas on employment, entrepreneurship and education which enabled Bayan Foundation to fully recover from its financial difficulties. It now sees itself at the forefront of promoting genuine social development that benefits the poor and marginalized.
The program was also highlighted by the conferment of Plaques of Appreciation to Bayan Foundation and Bayan Academy’s partners.  
For Enterprise Development, the awardees were: Center for Community Transformation and Citi Foundation (for opening the Citi Microenterprise Development Center).  For Employment, the awardees were JPMorgan Chase & Co (the JPMC Entrepreneurship Education Program for Community Development is a joint undertaking with Bayan Academy), Tesda, Reyes International School of Technology, Nestlé Phils. and Sun Goddess Food Corp.  For Education, the awardees were Knowledge Channel Foundation, the Development Academy of the Philippines and Rex Book Store.
The event recognized 39 individuals and enterprises who benefited from the micro-finance endeavors that ABFI promoted in the beginning of their operations.  The awardees present included 3 from Northern Luzon, 8 from Southern Luzon, and 17 from the National Capital Region.  Speaking on behalf of the client entrepreneurs was Romano Marcella and his business Onyang Sweet Products. “We are thankful to the ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation for giving us that miracle of a chance,” he said.
Morato conveyed his message of congratulations to the directors and movers of the foundation and the academy.  He also spoke of how he witnessed the foundations’ trials and tribulations.  “When I started at the Foundation as a consultant, I asked them one question: ‘How many of the 45,000 beneficiaries have risen from being micro-entrepreneur borrowers to bona fide entrepreneurs?’ Later on, we decided to go away from micro-finance to creating honest-to-goodness entrepreneurs through education and training. Not all of our experiments succeed, but some of them succeed because we don’t decide to do it all by ourselves.  It is not about doing things alone, but doing things with people who know what they are doing; because fruitful partnerships have a great multiplier effect.”