Philippine Self-Help Foundation (PSHF)

About us

The Philippine Self-Help Foundation (PSHF) came into being in January 1987, shortly after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship. The island of Negros in the Southern Visayas region was plunged into crisis when the price of sugar on the world market collapsed. The island´s sugar workers were laid off in their thousands and their children went hungry.
PSHF Founder, Richard Foster remembers walking through the paediatric wards of the provincial hospital and seeing the blank looks on the faces of third-degree malnourished children.
The PSHF livelihood loan programme started in that same hospital with the parents of two children receiving loans for their small businesses. An office in the city was opened six months later and a part-time co-ordinator appointed.

What we do
• The PSHF opened its first office in 1987 at the time of the sugar crisis on Negros island. Many sugar workers were losing their jobs in the sugarcane plantations and their families were going hungry. The PSHF was initially set up to provide micro-loans to poor families to enable them to engage in alternative or supplementary livelihoods. Later, the scope of the PSHF was broadened to include a wide range of clients, both urban and rural, who needed start-up capital for a small business venture.
• The PSHF also provides medical emergency aid, housing grants and education opportunities to poor families and communities.
• Loans: In 2011, the PSHF disbursed 202 livelihood loans to individuals and groups for a total disbursement of 2,020,000 pesos (US,000). A further 224,500 pesos (,300) was disbursed in medical loan assistance to nine individuals and 17 students received loans for vocational study.
• Grants: In 2011, we provided 20 individuals with grants for a total disbursement of 623,000 pesos (US,000). The grants were mostly for medical needs but we also assisted families with housing and the revival of livelihoods.
• Emergency Fund: Emergency fund disbursements do not require a project proposal or write-up but details are included in a report which is updated monthly. An example: Lunch for Rugby Boys
• Preschool Education - Lighthouse Learning Center: The primary goal of the LLC is to provide good quality and affordable education to poor children. In the Philippines, it is only the children from middle-class households who can go to good pre-schools. The PSHF therefore made a significant achievement in making quality pre-school education accessible to low-income earning families.

Richard Foster is the Founder of the Philippine Self-Help Foundation (PSHF).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.