The Philippine countryside is made brighter with this heart-warming scene of young children enjoying the gift of technology, which makes learning more enjoyable and memorable. With electricity accessible in their homes, schools and communities, progress is at their fingertips. Their lives are changed and their future is certainly bright.

Around 200 children mostly from provinces in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) flew to Manila over the weekend to participate in the annual Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) Football for Peace festival, a continuing advocacy to promote peace through sports especially to children in areas marred with armed conflicts.

Meralco’s corporate social responsibility arm, One Meralco Foundation (OMF) ended 2016 with a record accomplishment in energizing 23,750 low income households in the Meralco franchise area and 170 public schools in remote island and mountain communities in the Philippines.

  Ensuring that students enjoy the benefits of electrification in far-flung communities in the Philippines is a tough challenge considering that thousands of schools still do not have access to electricity. These are located in hard-to-reach mountain and island villages wherein extension of electrical facilities from the mainland and prove to be technically challenging.

One Meralco Foundation funds facility extension of the Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative (DORECO) to reach newly constructed homes for Typhoon Pablo (int. Bopha) victims in Davao Oriental.

One Meralco Foundation, PLDT-Smart Foundation and the Archdiocese of Palo formally broke ground on the site where a multi-purpose center will soon rise within the Archbishop’s compound in Leyte.

One Meralco Foundation energized five island public schools in the municipality of Balut Island, Davao del Sur recently. Balut Island is located in the southernmost tip of the Philippines.

They may have failed to hold on to their title as champion in last year’s Akapela Open competition, but this year “Acapella Go” made sure they’re going to take it back — and with a landslide kind of victory.

One Meralco Foundation celebrates three milestones in its continuing mission to “spread the light” in a three-part program held Wednesday (September 2), at the Meralco Theater.

One Meralco Foundation and Meralco, along with its partners Pepsi and Glad, recently launched an improvised flotation device called “Salba Bote” to help families along flood prone areas prepare for the coming of the typhoon season.

More than 7,000 remote public elementary and high schools in the Philippines do not have access to electricity to this day. Consequently, students in these schools are left behind especially in terms of science and technology.

One sunny afternoon in 2011, Lt Col Stephen L Cabanlet and his fellow members of the Philippine Marine Corps stationed in Sulu decided to play football in a field just outside of their detachment. Intrigued by the ìnew sport,î the local children gathered around them to observe.

For four years, KACSA did not have access to electricity due to legal and financial challenges. Learning about the plight of the residents of KACSA, Meralco and the Foundation stepped in in 2014 and determined the possibility of energizing the community through the household electrification program.

In the course of fulfilling their mission, Meralco engineers and linemen came across badly damaged public school buildings in their assigned areas. Moved by the heart-rending condition of the students, they turned to the Foundation for help.

Over 100 indigent families residing in Villa Evangelista, a compound in Brgy. Palatiw, Pasig City recently benefited from the gift of light given by Meralco and its social arm, the One Meralco Foundation.

Marking the start of the “ber” months was One Meralco Foundation’s recent upgrading of existing electrical facilities of the Kuya Center for Street Children, a four-storey center formed by the Luzon Association of Religious Brothers to provide temporary shelter for children wandering the streets of the commercial district of Cubao, Quezon City.

Forty families residing in Platinum Village, Brgy. Loma de Gato in Marilao, Bulacan recently benefited from the gift of light given by One Meralco Foundation under its Community Electrification Program.

Meralco not only provided electricity to the one hundred twenty households in Welfareville, but also lighted up their streets and basketball court.

Living on an island with not much amenity is no longer such a hardship for Parent Teacher Association (PTA) president Reynold Porcino now that there is electricity to power lights for a better learning environment at San Agapito Elementary School in Isla Verde, Batangas.

Farming families in Brgy. Sibul, San Miguel, Bulacan now have the power to boost their development through the light they received from the social development arm of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), One Meralco Foundation.

After the T’bolis of South Cotabato in 2014, One Meralco Foundation’s School Electrification Program brought much needed electricity to another indigenous peoples’ community in Southern Mindanao in 2015: the B’laans in Sarangani province.

The social development arm of Meralco, the One Meralco Foundation (OMF), and the Loyola Meralco Sparks Football Club (LMSFC) teamed up with the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) in Football for Peace, a sports initiative focused on developing and honing football skills and instilling values of discipline, camaraderie, teamwork and sportsmanship.

It’s refreshing to see how the prospect of playing basketball brightens up the faces of Aeta kids. And to learn the fundamentals of basketball from Meralco Bolts head coach Ryan Gregorio himself, what can be more thrilling than that?

The first and second Meralco Campus Tour Chess Workshops were held at the Ramon Magsaysay High School (RMHS) in Cubao, and Bagong Silangan Elementary School (BSES) in Batasan, Quezon City respectively, gathering more than 180 students who were also chess enthusiasts.

Every parent’s dream is to see their children excel in whatever endeavour they choose to take. Parents’ main role is to open up opportunities for their children to develop and reach their full potential and be productive citizens of the country.

One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the social development arm of Meralco, has partnered with Miriam College for Project Light-A-Dream in support of the academic institutionís night school for underserved adults and out-of-school-youth, the Miriam College Adult Education (MAE).

Nayon ng Kabataan, a temporary home run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the care and rehabilitation of the socially disadvantaged youth, was the site for the implementation of the Meralco Basketboys Program, a sports-development initiative by One Meralco Foundation, the Meralco Sports and Youth Advocacy office and the Meralco Bolts PBA team.

Ben Deciar, a 43 year-old resident of Brgy. Sapang, Talim Island, is often described as a family man by his peers in every sense of the word. Except that he doesn’t have his own family to support.

For 24-year-old Myra Coral, a student from Concepcion Uno, Marikina City, looking for a source of income to help her parents with the household expenses has not been easy. Applying in job fairs brought initial hope but then, with each passing day with no contact from the companies she has applied to, her routine has ended up in despair.

On a typical weekday, Veronica Atlas, a housewife from Bgy. Sapinit in Antipolo City, wakes up with a smile on her face. As a loving wife and mother of four children, she prepares the breakfast of her family to fuel their day at work and school, respectively. After she bids them goodbye, she tends to the communal farm, using skills she learned from the training of One Meralco Foundation’s Bio Intensive Gardening (BIG).

Equipping the youth with the skills needed in doing First Aid, One Meralco Foundation in collaboration with Philippine Red Cross’ Rizal Chapter implemented the Youth First Aid Challenge, a competition promoting safety awareness to students under the Red Cross Youth program, last November 12. Aside from added knowledge and skills, teams involved also gained leadership, and improved their character and discipline.

When there are typhoons or floods, fire, earthquakes or other natural and man-made calamities, affected communities feel a common abysmal low, prompting these families to wallow in depression, thinking that no amount of will can uplift them from such fateful devastation set upon them. Fortunately, in time before this bleakness swallows their whole beings, corporations, institutions, schools and even individuals go out of their way to help those in need of immediate attention.

Days after Typhoon Pablo ravaged Eastern Mindanao, particularly the province of Davao Oriental, thousands of families in the towns of Cateel and Boston were left with painful memories of how the typhoon devastated their lives.

Drawing hundreds of employee-participants from the MVP group of companies, this year’s eco-campaign included coastal and underwater clean up and environmental protection lectures.

One Meralco Foundation, the social development arm of the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), is now accepting donations in cash or in kind for those affected by Typhoon Yolanda.

As part of its disaster response efforts, Meralco recently assisted Cabanatuan Electric Corporation (CELCOR) in rehabilitating 35 poles brought down by Typhoon Maring in the city. The affected poles make up their 9 kilometer 69kV subtransmission line. Restoration of this is very crucial to CELCOR’s operations as it serves as their main supply line from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Cabanatuan Substation to their distribution system.

There is something profound in the way Meralco employees share their resources to light up the lives of fellow Filipinos who have less in life. It transforms them perhaps equally as it brings cheer to those they are trying to help.

Neighbors who grew up with Manuel V. Pangilinan in San Juan of vintage Manila remember the readiness of his family to help others in need, a mindset he carries to this day and which he shares with those who work with him.

Volunteering has always been second nature for the men and women of the country’s biggest electric distribution company — the Manila Electric Company (Meralco). Apart from offering excellent service to their customers, these employees never forget to reach out to their respective communities in whatever way they can. In fact, today, sixty Meralco employees are currently sprucing up public classrooms in two schools in Metro Manila under Hands on Manila’s Servathon.

The future certainly looks a lot brighter now for almost 150 pupils of Casili Elementary School in Rodriguez, Rizal after the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and its social development arm, One Meralco Foundation, installed a 1-kilowatt photovoltaic system to equip the school with a source of electricity.

More than the usual energization, One Meralco Foundation engaged farming families from the GreenEarth Heritage Foundation farm in Bgy. Sibul, San Miguel, Bulacan in a different kind of light.