Standard Chartered Bank’s Banca ng Buhay Livelihood Program Wins in the BAIPHIL Best CSR Search

Standard Chartered Bank’s “Banca ng Buhay: School Boats for Mobility and Livelihood Project” won 2nd Runner Up in the Bankers Institute of the Phils. (BAIPHIL) Beyond Banking: Search for the Best CSR Project. Winners were announced during the closing ceremonies of the 29th BAIPHIL National Convention held recently at Taal Vista Hotel, Tagaytay City. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. led the awarding ceremony together with BAIPHIL President Liza Ortiz and Special Projects Chairperson Marilen Ruiz.

The “Banca ng Buhay: School Boats for Mobility and Livelihood Project” is a one- year disaster resiliency project which integrates free access to transportation services for public school children with sustainable livelihood for supertyphoon Yolanda- impacted communities, specifically in Catbalogan City, Samar. The oldest international bank in the country partnered with the Department of Education, Philippine Business for Social Progress, and Negrense Volunteers for Change, Inc.

The project provides free access to education to at least 300 public school students residing in the six barangays who want to attend regular classes, reduce risk to schooling, and improve their academic performance. Poverty and the difficulties students face hinder their desire to stay in school. City DepEd office of Catbalogan noted a decrease of 46% in enrollees in high school due to these factors. These students used to pay 5 pesos per way to get to school, an amount difficult to afford for families of fishermen with average daily income of Php100. Some of the students wrap their school materials in plastic as they swim to school when they are unable to hitch a ride or pay a fishing boat.

It provided thirty- eight ( 38) fiberglass, motorized boats and fishing gears to boatmen which will be used to ferry the students to school, and in between will use them for fishing to support and restore livelihood activities. The housewives of the boatmen are also beneficiaries of trainings on capacity- building, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and livelihood assistance through seed-funding for food vending, processing and other micro enterprises. This will diversify and augment local livelihood which is currently overdependent on fishing alone.

“We are happy to receive this recognition from BAIPHIL and we share this with our program partners and the hundreds of our beneficiaries. The program’s integrated approach realized the development goals of equipping the beneficiaries with much- needed life skills such as financial literacy, money management, entrepreneurship, capacity- building trainings - abilities that will allow them to achieve community empowerment and sustainable approach to alleviate poverty” said Mai Sangalang, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing Head of Standard Chartered Bank.

Twelve ( 12) member banks participated in this year’s search and showcased their CSR projects in a photo exhibit during the convention. Other winners include Security Bank (1st Runner Up) and Landbank (Champion). Winners were chosen based on how the programs relate to current social concerns, how it affects and inspires beneficiaries and the extent of support, bank’s commitment to continue the project and the enthusiasm aroused among other institutions to conduct the same project.