Self-Fulfillment

Work for Self-fulfillment

It sounds good, noble and ideal. However, it is not the actual reason why people look for job. Think of the hundreds of thousands of Filipino domestic helpers who have to leave their family, small children behind, and even babies because of the need for money to support them and sometimes fall victims to abusive and exploitative employers. Think also our seafarers who have to stay several months in the middle of sea, braving harsh and all kinds of weather just to have the needed dollars for the food and education of their children. Given a choice, they will not take any of these thankless and unforgiving jobs. 

The phrase would rather more appropriately explains why many chose to stay or continue in a particular company and do a particular job among other choices that they may have.  Self-fulfillment is not the reason why we look for job, rather self-fulfillment is the meaning we find in having this or that particular job.

Karl Marx argued work to be the nature of the human person. The Bible shows participation in the creator's act through human labor. All of these are testimonies of the great importance of human labor.

Money is important. Compensation counts a lot. Labor cannot do away with rewards. That is why government has to assure and even protect the rewards of labor.

Business for the Mission

Business for the Mission II

Business with a mission...

Every time I celebrate mass I would introduce myself as a missionary from Africa, working in Congo since my Ordination in 2008. But I am for the meantime back in the country to pursue graduate studies in Business, and currently enrolled in the MBA program De La Salle University. Oftentimes, I would see surprised faces among the community, as if asking me, why are you doing that Father?

Whenever, I see it fit, I would say “By learning efficiency in business management, I hope to introduce the same (efficiency) on how we in the Church use and manage our material and financial resources.”

Businesses remain competitive and enjoy growth for so many reasons, but one of which is the efficient use of its limited resources to maximize or achieve optimal profits. Efficient companies are intolerant of waste, besides, if seen, they are opportunities for profits. In this regard, we in the Church must admit the need to learn. Efficient use of our many resources and capacity to transform them into opportunities for further use are needed.

Do it Right

Do it right

Many corporate scandals later involved penalties amounting to hundred of millions in damages awarded to aggrieved parties. The Ford pinto car disaster cost the company a $4.9bn jury verdict. Philip Morris faced a $10bn penalty over the risk of "light" cigarettes.

Others say even say that the actual costs of corporate scandals runs to hundreds of billion dollars, such is the case of the collapse of Enron that also led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen.

Philippines is not free from corporate scandal either. Such scandals involved Amman Futures, Legacy group, Union Bank among others that costs running to hundreds of billion pesos. There are also corporate scandals that lead to environmental disasters, the actual cost was never accounted for like Marcopper Mining disaster.

Business wanted to grow and increase profit. To achieve this there are many different strategies available. But the most commonly use strategy is to lower cost that in the end sacrifices quality and security features of the product, service or the operations of the company itself. 

However, by cutting on cost to increase profitability, many of these companies, in the long run, when disasters come, accidents happen, incur more than they gain from cutting on cost.

Doing it right is expensive but it the end, it will save the company from unnecessary cost. Besides, doing it right, may in the end be a competitive advantage of the company. Brands associated with quality and integrity are more profitable in the long run.

The Child Within

The Child Within

Our CSR activity at Pequena Casa de Nazareth was a reawakening of my natural love for children. Being with them is a joy, I do not think much of what I give them, the efforts I made for them. Rather, I just let myself be with them, enjoy their company, enjoy the simplicity of life. Enjoy once again that I am a child within.

Children has a special place in my life as a priest. In fact I have written something about my past work that I was reminded during our CSR activity that I would like to share in this blog.

My work in Kinshasa since 2010 is mostly with the Youth, with pupils and students, and children and young adults of the parish. Kinshasa is the capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo with almost 9 million habitants. Being the capital city of a vast African country, Kinshasa is not unknown to most of the elements the modernity like internet and mobile phones, bars and restaurants, disco houses and nightclubs, shopping centers and beautiful cars. Our youths are not ignorant of any of these.

Despite the modern life and amenities of the city, there is a mind-set that prevails wherein children and young adults are insignificant, hence they wield no influence in the society, community, church and family. They are simply children they would say and the argument is finished. As such, they are last.

It is common place for adults and for us priest to be served first and with the best food and drink on feast days and at banquets. This is hospitality, a sign of respect and appreciation. But on the same occasion it is also a practice that children will not be served a meal or will just take some piece of bread. No one complains, children would not complain for they know and understand their place. They cannot demand.

But this is not the case at all times. During parish youth activities, when the youth are among themselves, children get the best place in the table and served a meal by their older brothers and sisters, (they call them “yaya”) who serve as their mentors. I enjoyed activities of the youth because here children are put ahead. It gives me joy to see the youth empowered and take decisions for themselves without fear and constraint. Activities of the youth is living example of charity, doing mission today, a new evangelization.

There are many other things than eating first in the youth apostolate in Kinshasa. There is value formation. Every weekend, their mentors (yaya) gather young children to study, meditate and pray the bible together. They search together for the relevance on the Word of God in their day to day lives.

There are quite of number of youth organizations in the whole archdiocese of Kinshasa. The number varies from parish to parish. In our parish, we have legion of Mary, Bilenge ya Mwinda (Youth of the Light), Bana Mwinda (Children of the Light), Kizitu-Anuarite among others. Yet all of them, their value formations and spiritual activities are all founded and centered on the Word of God.

Before coming back to the Philippines for my vacation and further studies, we celebrated the Holy Mass together. It was my last Mass with them. Within the Mass, we prayed for the success of their summer activities and with a Rite of Sending, blessed all their mentors (“yaya”). This week, third week of August, they are all busy with their respective Summer Camps which is a time of prayer, a time centered on the Word of God, a time of value formation, yet also a time for friendship, empowerment, recreation and enjoyment.

I will be going back to Congo with heavy concerns about organizational efficiency and new administrative  responsibilities. But the child within me longs to continue sharing my gifts, my skills to other children, so that when they grow up, they have a big heart for other children as well.

Organizational Stability

Organizational Stability

Pequena Casa de Nazareth is one among the many organizations in the Church where we see dedication, courage, loyalty and zeal to be of service to others that had been animating the church for the past two millennia.

However, running an organization is not only about commitment and love for others. There are issues and problems that demands knowledge and deep understanding of the organizational structure and environment, legal policies and cultural sphere.

The visit to Pequena Casa de Nazareth reminds me again of the very same challenges we are facing in our own organizations engaged in humanitarian service and work of evangelization in a foreign country.

It has been SVD strategy to collaborate with local organizations, specifically the diocesan bishop whose authority is recognized within the local domain. Secondly, we always prioritize the recruitment of local members. Because of this strategy, the SVD has been known around the world among male congregations to have enlisted within its rank members of the local population. For instance, the first black members of the clergy in the US are SVDs, the first members of foreign congregations in the Philippines are SVDs. In Africa as well as in many other countries in Asia where SVDs are present, local members are rapidly growing. These developments are but result of the strategy that local talents can significantly contribute to organization stability and efficiency.

At present, Pequena Casa de Nazareth faces difficulty in addressing many local issues and problems because of they lack of local members who have a deeper understanding and can provide deeper insight on the local environment.

In particular, Pequena Casa de Nazareth is paying taxes on their donations, where in fact, our laws exempt all religious and charitable institutions from taxes.

SVD Humanitarian Works

SVD Humanitarian Works

As missionaries, as priests and consecrated persons, as ecclesiastical persons, our primary task is evangelization, that is the proclamation of the good news of salvation to all peoples. However, evangelization calls for a dynamic and proactive engagement making us missionaries, priests, consecrated persons, and ecclesial individuals not merely observers of daily human affairs but active shapers and movers of social events. Our work of evangelization must result not only in spiritual moral upliftment but to the integral development of the human person. The hungry, the uneducated, the unemployed, the homeless, and the disabled must not be made dependents of our generosity but develop independence, confidence and productivity in the course of our charity. Let the goal of our evangelization the productive development of potentials of the human person.

I wrote this paragraph several weeks ago, when I was contemplating on a paper about the CSR audit of our SVD run "businesses". Back then, I thought why are we doing all these "apostolate", these charitable works and what do we intent to achieve by doing so.

The SVD Philippines is composed of three separate provinces, where SVD missionary priest and brothers are engaged in various ministries and apostolic engagement in the field of education, mass media, urban poor, indigenous peoples, environment, human rights, parish work, and other works of evangelization. In Metro Manila in nearby provinces, the SVD missionaries working in different fields belong to the central province. Our presence in Metro Manila is limited to the Chinese-Filipino through Saint Jude Catholic schools, the urban poor of of Tondo through our parish in the Smokey Mountain, the formation of candidates and to several other parish administrations.

What is distinctly interesting among our humanitarian works is the SVD Kalinga Center in Tayuman that provides basic necessity services to those in need such as "kain, ligo ng ayos". This service of the SVD has been attracting a lot of media attention recently. The following are what google search engine will list after typing in "SVD Kalinga":

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/236413/svds-kalinga-center-for-poor-marks-1st-anniversary/

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/192613/svd-to-set-up-center-for-the-poor-in-tayuman/

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/199999/cardinal-tagle-to-bless-svd-center-for-the-poor-in-manila-guanella-home-for-the-disabled-appeals-for-help/

As a business student, my concern for writing on this is how to expand and sustain the service and what is the role of the private/business sector in this noble endeavor.

The Philippines is where the biggest catholic population in Asia is found counting around 70 to 60 million. Yet, the Philippines is the same country where abject poverty is a home. That is why the SVD Kalinga Center is a relevant initiative that must be expanded and multiplies if not for the whole country at least in Metro Manila to lessen the level of inequality between rich and poor that is a scandal for a predominantly catholic country.

These are the things that needs to be done to address issues of expansion and sustainability:

1. Expand stakeholders by partnering with the private/business sector, church organizations, and coordinate with existing government agencies with the same available services

2. Widen the scope of beneficiaries by raising awareness of the need and concern within the ecclesiastical structure.

3. Re-structure and improve the kind of services offered by giving skills and livelihood training and personality development session.

4. Harness the latent power of the poor themselves by challenging them to be involved and to give back--"No one is so poor that he cannot give..."

Christ worked with the Apostles, the Church then need to work with others to make an impact on the lives of others. Business management is very clear in saying, "delegate responsibilities".