The face of this child appeared on the cover of our First Annual Charity Ball souvenir program. The year was 1993. It was the year the Filipino Children’s Foundation was born out of a growing concern about the state of poverty in the Philippines and its tragic effect on our children. Since then we have become a strong voice for these children, passionately advocating to advance their cause and work for their welfare and survival.

Now, as we start our tenth year, we are proud of what we have accomplished, having extended help to hundreds of children brutalized by extreme poverty - from the slums of Manila to the poorest barangays of Camarines Sur and Davao. Yet we know that our task has just started. Today, the Philippines still ranks as one of the poorest in the world. Countless children are crying for help. A Jesuit writer once said that it is the excuse of those who care little to magnify what has to be done and thus find reason for doing nothing. We cannot afford to do nothing. As Pope Paul VI wrote - “If you want peace, work for justice.” We truly believe that there will be no justice in this world so long as the children are allowed to suffer.