SAN FRANCISCO, California—Filipino organizations here are raising funds to help uplift the lives of poor children in the Philippines but are making sure that the assistance they send reaches the intended beneficiaries.

Rosie Tria, whose husband has founded the Save A Tahanan Inc., an organization that does microfinancing and other projects in the Bicol Region, said many Filipinos in the US are willing to send financial help to the Philippines but would like to be assured that the aid they are giving is not wasted.

“Filipinos here want to help, but they want to see that the projects are credible. We have had bad experience in the past,” she told this reporter on the sidelines of a luncheon-fashion show put up to benefit poor children in Manila, held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

The event also celebrated the 21st anniversary of the Philippine International Aid which that helps send street children to school in Manila. Founded by Mona Lisa Yuchengco, the organization has benefited hundreds of scholars since 1986.

Filipino groups have also set up a bazaar to raise more money for their beneficiaries in the Philippines during the program held Sunday here.

Tria’s group has been helping disadvantaged communities in Bicol and Nueva Ecija for 20 years through financing cooperatives and has a tie-up with the Department of Agriculture to train farmers for self-sufficiency.

She said it is not hard to ask Filipino-Americans to help those in need in the Philippines and Save A Tahanan has local consultants who monitor the progress of their projects back home.

“We don’t give money [back home] because they ask for it. Our consultants see to it that the money is spent well,” added Tria.

The fashion show featured the works of noted designers Isabel Lovina and Frederick Peralta which wowed many non-Filipino members of the audience who each paid $100 for a seat and lunch.

During the program, children models held pictures of PIA’s beneficiaries in Manila and asked the audience to sponsor a child to school for only $150 a year.

PIA’s work in the Philippines started in 1986 when it founded a rehabilitation center for child prostitutes in Manila. The scholarship was established as a preventive measure to keep poor children from the streets and from the flesh market.

THE government admitted that it cannot go all-out for micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) financing due to the country’s current fiscal position and will have to rely more on the private sector to provide lending at this time.

SAN FRANCISCO, California—Filipino organizations here are raising funds to help uplift the lives of poor children in the Philippines but are making sure that the assistance they send reaches the intended beneficiaries.

BANGKOK—Thailand’s leading conglomerate, the Siam Cement Group (SCG), is studying its expansion options in the Philippines despite high production costs.

The Philippines’ palay production for the fourth quarter may grow by 10 percent year-on-year and enable the Department of Agriculture (DA) to reach its target of producing 16.2 million metric tons (MMT) of palay for 2007.

THE Department of Education (DepEd), in partnership with foreign governments and the private sector, has intensified efforts to improve access to quality education and open jobs for children and out-of-school youth in Mindanao, particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).