austraLasia #3180
Laura
Vicuña Foundation wins STAR 2012
Impact Award
LONDON: 16 January 2013 -- The Laura Vicuña
Foundation, managed
by the Salesian Sisters in Manila, receives the 2012 STARS
IMPACT AWARD
in London for the Protection Category in the Asia Pacific
Region. The
Foundation was chosen out of the 302 short-listed NGOs from
over 1,000
applicants in 14 countries.
STARS* founding Chairman Amr Al-Dabbagh conferred the award to
LVF
represented by Sr. Marivic Sta. Ana FMA in a ceremony at The
Orangery
at the Kensington Palace last December 15, 2012. Philippine
Ambassador
to the United Kingdom, Enrique Manalo, witnessed the awards
ceremony
and also attended the dinner to honor the awardees at the
State
Apartments at the Kensington Palace.
“This is not only a great accolade to the Foundation and
to the
Salesian Sisters but also to the Philippines as this is
the first
time a Philippine NGO was given an award by this prestigious
body’,
says Sr. Marivic.
The 100,000 US dollars award money will be used to help build
a bigger
home for the healing and recovery of sexually-abused girls as
well as a
training center and the offices of the Foundation.
The comprehensive work of the Foundation for the protection
and
development of children particularly its pioneering Child
Protection
Clinic on Wheels and the three Children of the Canes national
conferences convened by the LVF towards a socially responsible
sugar
industry were the winning cards for the Laura Vicuña
Foundation.
LVF helps children to understand their rights and how to
protect
themselves, and enables many to become rights advocates
themselves. It
runs a center for the healing and recovery of sexually abused,
exploited and trafficked children, two vocational-technical
schools,
alternative learning system; helps organize the local council
for the
protection of children in high risk communities in Metro
Manila.
“While I was in London, I had the opportunity to tell His
Excellency
Amr Al-Dabbagh about the importance of reaching out to
children in
their communities, schools and even homes which is why the
mobile
protection unit is so effective,” she said. We want to extend
the reach
of that unit to child laborers in the sugarcane
industry. These
children are highly at risk from hazardous labor, from
trafficking and
from sexual exploitation. Taking a second mobile unit out into
the
plantations where these children are, is the only way that we
can
intervene now and offer them protection,” Sr. Marivic added.
“I hope that our countrymen will also support our work and
enable us to
buy that second mobile for the sugarcane children who are at
risk every
single day. We want to help those children, now,” she
said.
This recent achievement of the Foundation is an affirmation of
LVF’s
mark of excellence in developing and delivering comprehensive
and
integrated direct services for the vulnerable children and
their
families, raising public awareness around children and youth
issues,
and building a network of institutions supporting vulnerable
children.
LVF’s first international recognition was from Citigroup
Foundation and
Resource Alliance during the 2005 Asia Pacific NGO Awards in
Singapore
where LVF was awarded Best NGO in the Philippines and Third in
the Asia
Pacific Region. In 2011, the Foundation bagged the Maya Ajmera
Sustainability Award given by Global Fund for Children (USA).
Every year, millions of families in the Philippines make the
journey
from their rural villages and towns to Manila, searching for a
way out
of poverty in the sprawling streets of the capital. For many,
the dream
ends there.
"Families come to the cities thinking they will have a better
life, but
many have no skills and no means of finding work," says Sister
Maria
Victoria Sta.Ana, executive director of Laura Vicuña
Foundation, a
Manila-based NGO working with some of the Philippine's most
vulnerable
children.
"Families disintegrate and split apart and, in the process,
many
children end up abandoned and on the streets where they are
extremely
vulnerable and unable to fend for themselves," she explains.
There are an estimated 1.5 million street children in the
Philippines,
about 75,000 of whom are living in Manila, with thousands more
ending
up homeless every month. Laura Vicuña was founded in
1990, initially to
provide a drop-in centre for street children facing assault
and
violence. Having discovered that many of the street girls are
sexually
abused, the foundation opened a home, in 1991, to get them off
the
streets.
"Most of the children who end up on our streets are forced
into a life
of sexual abuse and drugs, and are rounded up into crime
syndicates and
often have nobody to turn to," says Sister Marivic. "The girls
are
often abused by their own peers or by pimps, and become
victims of
trafficking. They come to us severely traumatised."
* STARS:
The STARS Foundation was founded by the Dabbagh Group in
2001, in the
belief that local organisations are best-placed to respond
to the needs
of their communities and the children in their care. An
Innovative
Approach to Funding STARS’ partnership approach is reflected
in the
nature of the innovative package we offer our Awards
recipients. The
package combines US$100,000 of unrestricted funding with
tailored
consultancy support – offering organisations the flexibility
they need
to respond to local challenges and plan for the future. Our
approach is
underpinned by a rigorous selection process, developed with
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Awards recipients are selected
using eight
criteria that reflect the hallmarks of effective practice
and all
applicants receive feedback on their application