Service Learning: Corporate Social Responsibility

As a person who is consistently doing a morning exercise at the park, I become familiar with other individuals who performed morning exercise as well. Some of them joined the aerobics. These people are mostly on their 40’s. There are also few young people who performed Arnis.

Doing a jog in the morning is also my way to free my mind from stress or thinking too much. So I came up to consider health as my proposed issue in my community. For me it would be easier to propose a program especially if the people involved are open minded in the particular issue.

However, these people I encounter every day is not the reason why I decided to take Health as my propose issue for my CSR.  The reason why I chose this was because of our neighbor who has a small grocery store. She is a petite woman at her 40’s. She assists me whenever I need to buy something. Until one day, I have notice she no longer in the store to assists the buyers. I just found out that she had a stroke. I know if someone can only pay attention to her condition, she can easily recover. So I thought if there would be an organization who would aim to help community members on their recovery, it would be a huge help for the family members of the patient. 

To provide a right proposed plan in my community, it is a requirement to assess the community’s need in this kind of program. Knowing the health condition rate of my community is a must and until now this is what I’m still trying to arrange with the people in-charge in our Barangay.

People, Planet & Profit

In economic perspective, an organization helps the individual on their livelihood. However, the companies should not end in just providing people a job to live their means. There are other factors which every organization should take into consideration -People, Planet and Profit.

People, planet and profit are the components of multistream approach. More and more companies now a days are practicing this approach. Corporate Social Responsibility for example is now popping up in most of the companies. Multistream approach according to Neubert/ Dyck is taking stakeholders as part of organization's responsibility. This creates balance on the companies financial stability and those that may be affected by the company's performance.

The video below shows the sustainability of the organization by taking compelling to people, planet and profit at the same time.

Service Learning: Searching for the Right One

My whole Sunday was spent on searching for the right one. I had opened more than thirty websites to search for organizations which I may consider to be the best for the group.

One of the criteria which I inclined to look for is the location. Since all of us in the group have work commitments, we preferred at least an organization that would not consume a lot for the travel time. The second factor which I well thought out is the enforceability of the organization towards their objective and the level of commitment of the people on their organization’s mission.  

The top three among the organizations which I was able to search are The Academy of Hope, CRIBS Foundation Inc. and PREDA Foundation.

The Academy of Hope is located in Cabuyao, Laguna. They rehabilitate individuals who are victims of drug abused and people who are experiencing depression and anxiety. They also facilitate individuals with mental disorders due to tragic circumstances that happened in their lives. I have also found out that the Academy of Hope is tie up with a known private organization.

CRIBS Foundation Inc. has different objective. This organization is into child caring. They support homeless children to find foster parents who can provide them special care. It is located in Marikina. Some private organizations coordinate with CRIBS Foundation Inc. on their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Lastly is the PREDA Foundation which is located in Olonggapo city. Mr. Shay Cullen, the Founder, is actively raising campaign against human trafficking. The organization rehabilitates young individuals who experience drug abused, maltreatment/ physical abused and women who have been into prostitution. Most of their programs and articles are posted on their website. This organization is actually my preference. However, the location is just bad for our schedules due to travel time.

At this moment our group is still deciding in which organization we will spend our 6 hours service learning activity.

Handling Financial Predicament, Talk to Suze Orman

Success can be defined in different ways by different people. Most of us tend to associate success by having material possessions and financial freedom.

The first thing which I have learned from the video is modesty. Suze Orman never felt ashamed to tell her story. She even mentioned about her job as waitress years ago. I could not imagine that back then she already knew Steve Jobs.

How people manage the finances now a days are too far from what people do back then. Before, a person may enjoy traveling abroad upon reaching their retirement. However in this era, people even at their 20’s can already travel having money on their own pockets. Most people are now adopting vanity. Then credit cards exist. Most live in life beyond their means. I guess it’s one of the reasons why financial adviser or analyst became a trend as most of us don’t know exactly how to manage the finances (even myself is guilty of this).

According to Suze, the following are the laws of money which can avoid financial predicament.

Law #1: Truth creates money, lies destroys it.

Law #2: You have got to look at what you have, not at what you had

Law #3: You have got to do what’s right for you before you do what’s right for your money

Law #4: You must first invest in known before the unknown.

Law #5: You must always remember that money has no power of its own

Planning your Future

To have a financial freedom is not just about getting a high paid job, obtaining a good life means being able to handle your financials.

Today and years from now inflation rate will be gradual in which the money that has been saved in banks will no longer have the same value from the time it has been deposited. Therefore, engaging in a long term investment is important. According to Suze, people should look for investment that is at least equal or more than to one’s expenditures. As a banker, I was able to learn the types of investment and for me, Money Market is apt for a conservative type of clients, just like me. Before getting a commitment with the bank, it is important that a person should at least have the basic understanding on how money goes through investment. 

There is a quote which I read in the company where I am currently working and it goes like, "Learn to live within your means, having extra money does not mean that you have to spend it. Learn to invest for your future retirement." The message is so simple yet powerful and I believe this is one of the tools to be able to achieve financial freedom.
  

"Many people take no care of their money until they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
 

 

Juggling Work, Life and Faith

Balancing work, life and faith is the most crucial thing for people who have many priorities in life. There are things to consider when setting priorities. Most people take family as their first priority but usually get compromised when there are unexpected issues that happens in our lives.

I can relate to Pat Gelsinger's talk about balancing family, work and faith. Though I don't have kids yet, spending quality time with the people special to me is part of my priorities as well. I am glad to have a supportive family who understand me whenever I have to spend most of my hours with my studies and with work-related stuff.

Balancing work together with personal life requires discipline. I believe it is inappropriate to see someone doing his school homework in the office or perhaps to see someone taking some office work at home while spending time with the family. The best way to balance life is to become a discipline person especially on time and dealing with deadlines. A person should also remember that above all, saying a prayer before doing the daily tasks can make a difference.