MANILA, Philippines – Since the renaming of PJ Lhuillier Foundation into the Cebuana Lhuillier foundation, it has since made education accessible to those who need it through donation of classrooms, learning centers, conference rooms, and buildings to be utilized for furthering learning for those who need and want it.
For many years now, Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc. (CLFI) has consistently administered poverty-alleviation measures to the underserved and disadvantaged individuals and sectors nationwide. Following the personal philosophy of its President and CEO, Jean Henri Lhuillier which is to “Always Love Schooling”, part of CLFI’s major thrust in education is the implementation of the Alternative Learning System or ALS along with three other initiatives that emphasize further the value of education; Nationwide Scholarship Program, Spiritual and Social Enhancement Program, and Special Projects on Education.
“The foundation has always espoused the company’s and my personal advocacy of continuing the pursuit of learning, I am more than elated to see this advocacy into fruition through the foundation’s many extensive efforts on education.” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.
The ALS program was established in 2013 in cooperation with the Department of Education, the program aims to provide out-of-school youth and adults with Academic, Livelihood, Spiritual and Social Education in the elementary and secondary levels. Cebuana Lhuillier’s ALS program differs from the usual ALS offered because it incorporates the five functional fields of knowledge or FILDS which stand for Financial Literacy, ICT Competitiveness, Livelihood, Disaster Resilience, and Sports Development and as of the last quarter of 2018, CLFI has already opened 79 ALS centers.
Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc., puts prime on equipping ALS students with the financial literacy as it is a company that puts forward the advocacy of financial inclusion for all Filipinos. The ALS program also conducts livelihood trainings in the field of hospitality management for students who need training in the said field.
More so, CLFI ensures that its ALS centers are up-to-date with the latest equipment. Through the years, CLFI has given its centers with laptops, projectors with screens, printers, USBs, and has cared for the reproduction of modules and reviewers used by the students.
CLFI also provides buildings in support for its ALS programs among the classrooms, centers and halls donated by Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation is the Ambassador PJ Lhuillier Lecture Room at the University of the Philippines Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business which serves as a classroom for the degree program’s students. Another is the Ambassador Philippe Jones Lhuillier Conference Room at the De La Salle University in Manila where workshops, meetings, community engagement get-togethers, and symposiums are being held regularly. Also made available to students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines is the PUP-CLFI E-learning center worth 2 million pesos which houses 21 desktop computers and contains 400 select e-book titles all free for use of the students.
Added to the centers and classrooms sponsored by the foundation is the Northern Tacloban City National High School Sports Building which is a two-storey building with six classrooms two of which are dedicated to classes for the Alternative Learning System. Lastly, among the many donations of CLFI as support for education for all, the Edna Lhuillier Multi-Purpose Hall in Bais City, Negros Oriental serves as a library where most of the scholars of CLFI and ALS learners come to conduct research among the numerous book titles available. It is also being used for seminars and workshops involving reformed drug addicts in the city of Bais, as well as a hub for Bais’ senior citizens.
CLFI, in partnership with DepEd aims to unveil 20 more centers so that more out of school youth have access to learning.
Because of the commitment of CLFI, ALS learners from CLFI-backed classrooms have posted multiple milestones through the years. These include beating the national average of the Accreditation and Equivalency test for two straight years and producing a learner which scored 100% on the 2014 Accreditation and Equivalency test. By end of 2019, the CLFI-backed ALS program has produced close to 10,000 learners nationwide. While in the 2017 Accreditation and Equivalency test, despite the changes in the passing score for ALS A&E test takers, which saw a low turnout of 15.6%, the A&E test takers from Cebuana Lhuillier ALS centers were able to have a turnout of 49% – higher than the national average of 15.6%.
With the rising demands of today, the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc., with its bold mission of empowering the disadvantaged through giving access to education via its ALS program will surely combat the challenges of a nation gripped by poverty.