LANDBANK’s Gawad Patnubay Scholarship Program wins Best CSR Project
LANDBANK’sScholarshipadjudged as Programthe Gawad Champion Patnubaywas in the 2017 Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Project Award of the Bankers Institute of the Philippines, Inc. (BAIPHIL). This is the second award for the program after being named Outstanding Development Project – CSR Category by the Association of Development Financing Institution in Asia and Pacific (ADFIAP) in 2014. The Gawad Patnubay Scholarship Program, managed by LANDBANK’s Corporate Affairs Department, is a unique two-pronged scholarship program with an E2E Internship component for children of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) taking up agriculturerelated courses. The program covers the formal education or the four-year degree program in partnership with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and, informal education or skillbased training program in partnership with Pilipinas Association of Rural Families for Education and Development (PARFED). The E2E component is an internship program composed of a 10-week intensive internship where graduates will spend three weeks of lectures, seminars, and professional and personality development activities at the LANDBANK Head Office in Manila, and seven weeks of field work in LANDBANK or in different partner-institutions, such as the Philippine Rice Research Institution (PhilRice), Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), and HARBEST Agribusiness Corporation (HARBEST), etc., with the objective of securing agriculture-related jobs at the end of the program. LANDBANK established a unique funding scheme for the program employees wherein voluntarily LANDBANK donate a minimum of one hour’s worth of their salary during the last working day of the year. To date, a total of P14 million has been donated by LANDBANK employees nationwide. Since its inception in 2013, the Gawad Patnubay Scholarship Program has accepted 127 2nd to 4th year college students for both the formal and informal education programs, covering full subsidy for tuition fee, including monthly stipend, book allowance, thesis writing and uniform costs. A total of 22 scholars from the two batches of the formal education program have graduated and are now employed in LANDBANK and in other partner government and private institutions. With its initial success, the Gawad Patnubay Scholarship Program will be expanded to 17 more universities across the country starting this academic year 2017-2018, in line with its goal to encourage and equip more aspiring future agriculturists that can contribute in developing the agriculture sector of the country. LANDBANK Operations Sector Head and Senior Vice President Alan V. Bornas received the award on behalf of LANDBANK last March 11, during the closing ceremonies of BAIPHIL’s 29th National Convention in Tagaytay City. “This award is another affirmation of the positive impact of the Gawad Patnubay Scholarship Program, not only to the beneficiaries, but also to the effort to revive student interest in agriculture,” says Bornas.