IPC teams up with PIA to keep students “off the streets and off to school”

IPC (IP Converge Data Services, Inc.), a pioneer in local cloud and data center services, is pleased to announce that it is now a partner of the Philippine International Aid (PIA), a U.S.-based charity that has been providing health and educational assistance to underprivileged youth.

One of the PIA’s core initiatives is the “Off the Streets-Off to School” scholarship, a program that helps parents and teachers to keep kids in school. Administered in partnership with the Phil-Asia Assistance Foundation, the Off the Streets–Off to School program provides scholarships annually to more than 1,000 children in Metro Manila. 

Together with their partners, PIA helps students go through elementary and college. The student's academic progress is monitored throughout the academic year and they are also encouraged to correspond with their respective benefactors.

An all-volunteer organization, PIA was established in 1986 to provide assistance to disadvantaged youth in the Philippines and the United States. Their core programs provide educational assistance to more children in the Philippines than any other U.S.-based charity. In 2013, aid was provided to more than 2,400 students.

Heading the organization is Mona Lisa Yuchengco, the founder and publisher of PositivelyFilipino.com, an online magazine on the Filipino diaspora. She also serves on the board of the Women’s Media Center, a non-profit progressive women's media organization. Working with her at PIA are successful Filipino-American business executives living in the Bay Area such as Executive Director James T. Lim, the current General Manager of the Omni Hotel, Secretary Sonia T. Delen, a Senior Vice-President at Bank of America Leasing, and France M. Viana, a strategic marketing consultant who currently heads the marketing department of the San Francisco World Affairs Council.

“PIA started out as a scholarship fund to send street children to school, to take them away from the streets where they were being recruited by pimps, and to place them in schools where they belong. Since then, thousands of children have gone through the program. Many of them have graduated college and gotten jobs, and are now able to help support their families,” said Yuchengco.

Under the program, IPC will fund the school expenses of 5 students of the Eulogio Rodriguez Integrated School in Mandaluyong City. The funds provided will take care of tuition fees, books, supplies, field trip costs, uniforms, shoes, and allowances for meals and transportation.

“Supporting the Off the Streets-Off to School program was an easy decision for us because IPC is always looking for ways to use its resources and expertise to give back to the community,” said Reynaldo Huergas, President of IPC. “Everyone of us is very excited to be part of this amazing project. We know that a lot of students are forced to drop out of school because of money and hopefully with our partnership with PIA, we can help those students stay and learn so that they can have a better future.”

This is the second time that IPC has teamed up with a charity dedicated to help improve education. In 2014, they lent their cloud technology services to assist the Teachers for the Philippines in documenting and tracking the effectivity of their teaching programs.

“We are always eager to lend a helping a hand to those in need, especially when it comes to education. We firmly believe that everyone should have access to education and IPC is happy to help schools and students alike in any way we can,” added Huergas.