MANILA, Philippines ? Her generosity has built a shelter for homeless children in Baguio, dormitories for students in Muntinlupa, and classrooms for the Badjaos in Sulu.
These are among the projects that seek to help street children, women, the handicapped and cultural minorities have a better future.
To help the poor and the needy, Consuelo Zobel Alger bequeathed her entire estate (worth more than a hundred million dollars) to charity two decades ago.
She established the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation in 1988, two years before she died at the age of 76.
She had said that she ?would like to renew hope for those who have lost it or give hope to those who never had it.?
Half-sister of Zobel matriarch
In her will, Consuelo stipulated that 75 percent of the earnings of her endowment be spent in the Philippines. She did this because her family?s money was earned in the Philippines and she wanted to give it back to the country.
Who is Consuelo? She was the half-sister of Mercedes Zobel McMicking, the matriarch of the Zobel de Ayalas. Consuelo and Mercedes were the rich aunts of first cousins Jaime Zobel de Ayala and the late Enrique Zobel y Olgado.
Like Mercedes and Joseph McMicking, Consuelo and James Alger were childless. The Algers settled in Hawaii in the 1970s when Consuelo?s husband, a three-star American general, retired from military service.
How the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation got started and what it has done quietly over the past two decades is a story that has to be told.
Homeless children
In 1987, Patti Lyons, an American social worker, went to Manila to work on an adoption program of the Child and Family Service Hawaii. While she was in the Philippines, the new Cory Aquino administration asked her to help with the street children problem. The thousands of homeless children touched her heart.
Lyons sought to put up a shelter for the children and was confident of raising the funds as she had done before.
She gave talks in Hawaii as she looked for funding, but the money did not come. She considered herself a failure, being unable to find the money for the shelter project for the homeless children in Baguio.
Slide presentation
When Lyons returned to Hawaii, she received a message from her secretary that a Consuelo Zobel Alger had called to talk about the project.
They later met at Consuelo?s residence. Lyons made a slide presentation on child abuse and the project for the homeless children.
The next day, Consuelo surprised Lyons with an initial check of $15,000 and asked the social worker how much it would cost yearly to operate the shelter. Lyons, quite uncomfortable, gave the figure of $50,000. Consuelo?s simple reply was ?I think I can manage that.?
The shelter came about because Lyons was first approached for the project. In one of her visits to the Philippines, she went to Baguio and met Danny Urquico, who became a cofounder of the foundation and found an old seminary, which became the site of the shelter.
Trust fund investments
A year later, Consuelo organized her foundation in Hawaii and gave all her wealth (amounting to billions of pesos) to help the marginalized people in the Philippines.
The trust fund is invested in equities, bonds and other instruments. With the global financial crisis, the value of the endowment has declined by about 30 percent.
I had the chance to talk to Lyons in Manila after the foundation?s 20th anniversary celebration last October.
Miracle
She described as ?a miracle? the initial funding for the shelter project and the setting up of the foundation. It may be because the benefactress, who led a simple and quiet life in Hawaii, was a deeply spiritual person who once said: ?For as long as I can remember, I have loved, admired and prayed to St. Therese of the Child Jesus.?
It was a moving experience listening to the testimonies of the partner-organizations at the anniversary celebration.
Partner organizations
It took an American social worker to start the shelter project with the funding support of Consuelo, who wanted to return something back to her country although she already had acquired American citizenship by virtue of her marriage to James Alger and had lived abroad for almost half a century.
Among the partner organizations is the Tuloy Foundation of Rocky Evangelista, a Salesian priest who began his work with Manila?s street children more than 10 years ago.
What started off as a 40 square-meter room with 12 students in Makati is now a four-hectare village with six dormitory buildings and many classrooms for more than 500 students. It is located just across from the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa.
Evangelista said the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation was the ?biggest and closest foundation they worked with that funded their dreams, such as the many classrooms for street children because they do not fit in normal schools.?
On the foundation?s benefactress, he said: ?If I have the power, I would have declared her a ?saint? yesterday.?
Evangelista and Consuelo never had the chance to meet. However, Consuelo has inspired the founder of Tuloy Foundation to continue with his mission to transform street children and other marginalized young people and offer them better opportunities and hopes.
Juvenile welfare law
A single advocacy that the foundation is associated with is the passage of a landmark legislation, The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2005, which separated those below 18 who are in prison from common criminals.
As a result of the new law, thousands of children were released from jail and brought to new facilities like the Consuelo Center in Baguio.
The award-winning documentary Bunso, a joint project of the Consuelo Foundation and Unicef that depicted the sad plight of children in prison, helped convince Congress to pass the legislation.
The juvenile justice project became a personal crusade of the foundation?s managing director, Ray Dean Salvosa, after his own brother was killed by a criminal syndicate composed of young men.
A former professor of political science, Salvosa became a social worker after doing volunteer work for the foundation in the late 1980s. He has been involved with the foundation since then.
Schools for Badjaos
The scope of the foundation?s work can be seen in the school projects built in Mindanao for the Badjaos, ?the most marginalized ethnic group in the Philippines.?
These are the four concrete classrooms in Suba and Kabukan in Sulu that replaced the old ones initially built by UNICEF over a decade ago.
Brother Crispin Betita, president and executive director of the Marcellin Foundation, said the Consuelo Foundation had ?helped hundreds of children in this part of the Philippines.?
Graduates of the schools now work in Manila, but they plan to go back and help their people.
The board of directors of the Consuelo Foundation, who are based in Hawaii (being a US-registered foundation), went to Sulu in February early last year to meet with the beneficiaries.
But in October 2008, a worker and a consultant of the foundation were abducted.
Genuine love for poor
After the anniversary celebration, Lyons said she believed that Consuelo was a ?saint.? Earlier, Evangelista remarked in the presentation that if he had the power to do so, he would have Consuelo canonized.
Two days later, in his homily at the Church of the Forgiving Lord at the Tuloy Foundation Village in Alabang, Muntinlupa, Evangelista reiterated that Consuelo be declared a ?saint? because of her genuine love for the poor.
?Spend my heaven doing good?
What is inspiring is that Consuelo was able to bequeath her entire estate to charity in an ?extraordinary act of grace.?
Her inherited wealth from the Zobel de Ayala family fortune was estimated to be more than $100 million in the late 1980s. She had said that ?my wealth passed on to me by my family, makes it possible for me to ?spend my heaven doing good upon earth,?? which is St. Therese?s very own vow.
In a letter to the board of trustees on July 6, 1990, Consuelo wrote before she passed away that year the words that became the guide of her foundation.
?I am particularly interested in serving the most needy or the ?poorest of the poor? ... who have no hope. Hope is so important to each of us ? I would like to renew hope for those who have lost it or give hope to those who never had it.?
In closing, she reminded her ?Dear Ones? to remember the words of St. Paul: ?in all things, be ever mindful of the poor.?
Blessed
Indeed, Consuelo was truly blessed that she was able to use her wealth in order to organize her foundation whose mission is to ?improve the quality of life of disadvantaged children, women and families.?
Her half-sister Mercedes Zobel McMicking and nephew Enrique Zobel, who passed away in 2005 and 2004, respectively, also had their own philanthropic foundations before their death.
However, it appears that they were unable to give back their wealth to society on the scale that their relative Consuelo quietly did 20 years ago.
The ?comparison? is meant to illustrate that Consuelo was truly one-of-a-kind: A ?saint? with the generosity to give all her money to help those who have lost hope. We have yet to hear of a Filipino who has left behind his or her entire wealth to charity amounting to billions of pesos.
(The author contributed to the Sunday Inquirer Magazine from 1986 to 1989. Involved in civic and NGO work since the early 1990s, he is organizing a foundation that seeks to harness the potentials of Filipinos overseas to help the Philippines. E-mail address: rbr
paradigm@gmail.com and rbrparadigm@yahoo.com)
