On its 4th year, Jollibee, the premier Filipino family fast food, celebrates the generosity of Filipino family through its Jollibee Family Values Awards – JFVA. The awarding of six families from different parts of the country and abroad was celebrated in a “Gabi ng Parangal” at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City last September 25, 2014.
Out of 1,732 entries received worldwide, these families were selected by a distinct board of judges coming from the government, represented by Sec. Dinky Soliman of DSWD, NGOs as represented by Gawad Kalinga’s founder Mr. Tony Meloto and the private sectors represented by Coca Cola’s Public Affairs and Communication’s Director Atty. Adel Tamano, ANC Host Edric Mendoza and Jollibee Philippines’ Vice President for Marketing Mr. Harvey Ong. The Judges chose these families among others because they have shown an exemplary character of generosity, love and charity towards social change.
This year’s awardees are: Mr. Octavio and Mrs. Felicite Jean Gonzales and family of Cubao, Quezon City. This JFVA family built a foundation out of their own resources to support other families with disabilities, more particularly behavioral disabilities. Their passion to help other families was born out of love to their son Magiting who has autism. The family staged an extensive research on how to address such condition and how to manage it through rehabilitation and therapy. The families vision to rehabilitate Magiting was extended to other marginalized families who cannot afford private therapies. The Gonzales Family, teaches other parents to do home therapy so that these people can be empowered to help themselves and eventually become a productive unit of the society.
Mr. Harmin Manalaysay and family of Cavite City advocate of bringing education to the street kids in Cavite through non-traditional form of education. Furthermore, Hermin and his nine adopted children help together to rehabilitate these poor kids from drugs and other dangerous substance through friendship and bible study lessons. His nine adopted children were once street kids themselves and were already abandoned by their parents. Mr. Hermin took them in and gave them love and is now paying it forward all the good things they received from Mr. Hermin’s initiatives.
Rachel Palacio and her six children of Pandacan, Manila once lived under the bridge of Pandacan. Her husband died of heart attack six years ago and now has difficulties of providing for her children, until a local NGO who sponsors poor children to school helped her kids to continue their education. Rachel and her family were moved by the generosity that the foundation gave them, she and her sponsored children took the initiative to volunteer in the foundation’s local programs. Even without any monetary compensation, each one take turns to help other poor children and their parents to become self reliant and to become sustainable. The Palacio family has shown that poverty is never a hindrance to help others who are also in need.
The Solidum family shares a different kind of advocacy. Gilmore, Judilyn and their two children uses their own resources and talents to educate the public about Dengue Prevention. Both doctors as a profession, these two have chosen to take a different path by using the expertise to execute the Dengue ReMove Program. This program is a commissioned research of the Dept. of Science and Technology – National Research Council (DOST-NRCP). Though this is a research work, both doctors are advocates of pursuing to eradicate Dengue in the country. Moved by their passion, they even extended their work to their children as co-facilitators of the project. Among the out-puts of the project are educational materials and storybooks that shed light to young people on how to prevent the disease and how to manage it once contracted by Dengue. The daughter Jea, serves as the main story teller of the storybooks while the son, Geoff did the illustrations of these books.
The Serrano Family exemplifies the meaning of maximizing God’s given talents by every member of the family. Pastor Nestor Serrano and his wife founded the Champions Alive Foundation. Together with their children, Pinky, Nassam, Dannes and Neavid all work together in providing education to out of school youth and adults. The daughter Pinky is in charge of the day Alternative Learning System or ALS. ALS is recognized by the government as an alternative form of education designed for students who are not capable to attend normal classroom set up. Daniel, the musically inclined in the family helps around by sharing his talents in music to kids who wish to learn them and apply it in their own ministry. And the youngest, David holds a free taekwondo classes to 30 to 50 students. On top of these, the whole family even extended their hearts to do other things such as feeding programs to the least fortunate communities in Ilocos, Baguio and Antipolo.
The Villa-Wilcox Family have proven that in proximity is no hindrance in helping fellow Filipinos who are in need. The family who are living in San Jose California still holds a special heart for the Philippines and is driven with a passion to help through Project PEARLS which stands for Peace, Education, Aspiration, Respect, Love, Smiles. The Project PEARL provides education, scholarship and feeding programs to underprivileged children in Bulacan, Manila and Zambunaga, as well as Dagupan, Guimaras, and Masbate.
“The Jollibee Family Values Awards is part of our continued commitment to celebrate and champion the values that unite the Filipino Family, “ Said Jollibee Philippines President Joseph Tambuntiong. “It very rewarding to meet more and more families who serve as beacons of light, and share their extraordinary stories to other Filipinos.”
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