The League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) is proud to announce the election of its chairman, Edgardo Amistad, to the position of Board Chairman of the ASEAN CSR Network. Mohd. Shah bin Hashim of the International Chamber of Commerce-Malaysia joins him as Deputy Chair.

The ASEAN CSR Network hopes to engage CSR networks, business groups and chambers of commerce in all ASEAN countries to promote support for Corporate Social Responsibility in the region.

Mr. Amistad says, “The creation of this network is an excellent opportunity for Southeast Asian nations to learn more about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to also promote best practices of CSR. With abundant experiences from its member countries, the ASEAN CSR Network hopes to share business models that contribute to the improvement of society.”

The election was held during the first meeting of the ASEAN CSR Network last 5 October 2010 in Singapore. The event was hosted by the ASEAN CSR Network Secretariat, and attended by the representatives of the founding organizations: Indonesia Business Links, International Chamber of Commerce-Malaysia, League of Corporate Foundations (Philippines), The Stock Exchange of Thailand Corporate Social Responsibility Institute (CSRI), and the Singapore Compact for CSR.

The LCF Family gathered once again for its General Assembly at the AIM Conference Center last 9 August 2010. First part of the Assembly was a forum on public-private partnerships featuring guest speakers DILG Assistant Secretary Rolando Acosta and EON Director for Legal and Public Affairs Jojo Lacanilao. Assistant Secretary Acosta presented a government agency’s perspective on sustainable development. Mr. Lacanilao talked about policies regarding public-private partnerships.

The open forum was followed by the General Assembly proper, consisting of updates for the year from LCF President Cecile Alcantara, a final report on the CSR Expo from TeamAsia President Monette Hamlin, and a financial update from LCF Treasurer Camille Buenaventura.

New member AMY Foundation was also inducted into the LCF Family. AMY Foundation Executive Director Alice Rodil gave a brief video presentation of their work.

New LCF Trustees were also declared at the assembly: Chairman Edgardo Amistad (UCPB-CIIF Foundation), President Cecile Alcantara (Coca-Cola Foundation), VP for Programs Gisela Tiongson (Jollibee Foundation), and VP for Resource Mobilization Sonny Carpio (Aboitiz Foundation). They will join remaining Board Members -- VP for Membership Linda Atayde (SM Foundation), Treasurer Camille Buenaventura (San Miguel Foundation), and Public Affairs Director Raffy Alunan III (Lopez Group Foundation). Atty. Marivic Sarmiento (Sarmiento Foundation) remains the Corporate Secretary and Legal Counsel.

The LCF thanked outgoing VP for Resource Mobilization Ms. Malu Erni for her many years of dedicated service to the LCF.

The general assembly ended with a fun, 4-round raffle, made possible by the following generous foundations: TeaM Energy, EDC, Lopez Group, San Miguel, Ang.Hortaleza, Toyota, BPI, SM, PASAR, Roxas, Metrobank, Petron, UCPB-CIIF, Coca-Cola and Sarmiento.

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A network of over 70 operating and grant-making corporate foundations and corporations that promotes and enhances the effective practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among its members and the larger business community, towards sustained national development.

Health practitioners and foundations must work with the local government and identify major problems and points of intervention to promote preventive health education in public elementary schools. Teachers must be provided with basic knowledge and enabled to develop a positive attitude towards health. With these two statements, the LCF Health Committee set the tone for their breakout session on sustainable health programs.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, Vice President of the Philippine College of Physicians said that if an individual's health is his wealth, then a nation's health is the nation's wealth. Human capital is most important, and the country needs healthy, well-educated, skilled and innovative, and creative people. Education is a primary venue to address this. Guided by the spirit of bringing better health through preventive health education among Filipino schoolchildren, the Preventive Health Education Advocacy (HERO) brings health service to every Filipino through relevant education of future healthcare workers. It was able to secure an Executive Order to develop preventive health modules addressing the top 10 reasons of mortality and morbidity in primary and secondary health care as well as addressing the lack of employment of medical workers.

Maurice Ligot, chair of LCF Health Committee and COO and managing director of Ang.Hortaleza Foundation presented LCF's health program Spread Preventive Health Education and Reform to Elementary Schools (SPHERES). SPHERES' initiatives include teaching of basic health practices to stop the spread of communicable disease among children and the community. While doctors and teachers do not have the resources to manage school health, SPHERES hopes to empower them.

Dr. Cynthia del Mundo, Chairperson of the Philippine College of Optometrists and Dr. Carmen Dichoso, OD, Chairperson of Healthy Athletes Program of the Special Olympics Philippines stressed the importance of pediatric vision screening, especially among the marginalized sectors of society. Given the absence of data on the vision of children and the low government priority, there is a need for coordination among stakeholders in addressing the difficulty of a visually-impaired child to learn.

Sustainable school health programs, according to Jennifer Laxamana, Head of the CSR department of Manila Doctors Hospital (MDH) can be made possible through partnerships as exhibited by MDH’s collaboration with Epifanio de lost Santos Elementary School (EDSES). Their program promotes a child friendly school through delivery of basic health services, healthy school environment and training of school health workers to become self sufficient health providers. These are important for the sustainability for all the health needs of the students.

During the open forum, discussions stressed the importance of training teachers to screen the children. Moreover, multi-sector efforts must be united and organized, and the government should embrace private sector initiatives. The exodus of medical practitioners should also be addressed by providing venues for training and employment opportunities. Instead of dole outs, funds must address long term solutions to the problem.

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The LCF CSR Expo aims to provide corporate citizens with skills, knowledge, and relevant experience to increase their awareness and empowerment as they work to achieve enhanced goodwill in doing sustainable and relevant business with society. LCF is a network of over 70 operating and grant-making corporate foundations and corporations seeking to provide business solutions to social and environmental problems in the Philippines.