Washington SyCip attended Philippine public schools when they were among the best in Asia. Now nearly 90, he’s working to make them good again.
By Susan Cunningham
FORBES ASIA
Milwida Guevara didn’t know Washington SyCip when he turned up at her foundation’s launch in Manila in 2002. She had started the Synergeia Foundation to help keep poor children in grade school. “Our dream, really, was to give every Filipino child a decent opportunity to have a grade six education,” she says. The statistics were grim: Nationwide only seven out of ten public school children enrolled in first grade completed sixth grade. In the poorest areas the figure was three out of ten.
Guevara had been an economist at the International Monetary Fund but had no experience in fundraising or running a foundation. No matter. After the ceremony SyCip invited her to breakfast the next day, along with her group of a dozen governors and mayors eager to reduce dropout rates and boost test scores. He ended up offering her 10 million pesos ($200,000 at the time) “to start you off.” MORE
Susan J Cunningham 