Philippines Scholarship Program

Globalization has brought many challenges to underdeveloped nations such as the Philippines. The pressures of shifting labor markets have dramatically affected communities all over the world as cheap labor and products make inroads into even the remotest villages and towns. In these communities, livelihoods were traditionally passed down from generation to generation. But due to shrinking world markets this is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

As a result, the availability of higher education to young people in economically strained regions is becoming increasingly important in establishing employment and producing livelihoods. However, most families in these traditional communities are not in a financial position to enable their children to obtain a college education.

In 2004, Vision Foundation International began a scholarship program to help promising students gain access to higher levels of education. VFI scholarships pay for tuition, travel, food and lodging (where necessary) and costs associated with projects, books and exams. The goal of the program is far-reaching. In the short term, it is designed to help young people become more employable by increasing their skills and abilities. But by gaining better jobs, the young people also become able to help support both their families and their communities for years to come.

The five students currently enrolled in the program are in various stages of their college education.  In 2012, one of the scholarship recipients graduated from Western Negros University with Cum Laude honors in the Computer Science division.  Since 2004, the scholarship program has helped nine scholarship participants graduate from university or technical college programs. Graduates have found meaningful careers in the fields of accounting, nursing, pharmacy, teaching, and government social work. The students hail from all over the Philippines and represent divergent communities from the capital city of Manila, to the Visayas Islands, to the outer island of Palawan.