By Mercedes B. Suleik Punlaan School, a project of the Foundation for Professional Training (FPTI), over the last forty years has contributed to  efforts at alleviating poverty through its commitment to educate and provide employable skills to marginalized women.  It is a multi-awarded school providing a dual training scholarship program in Hospitality and Culinary Arts. With more than 70 deluxe hotels and restaurants as partners where students do their on-the-job training, Punlaan graduates are 100% employed in prestigious establishments immediately after graduation, some even abroad. In the early seventies, inspired by St. Josemaria Escriva, Punlaan School was started informally by a group of volunteer housewives as a school for househelpers in Manila, to help them professionalize their work in the home and to learn the value and importance of the spirit of service.  It became one of the very first technical training schools, and in 1975 it was officially recognized by the Department of Education for the launch of its one-year Home Arts Course, and in 1985 was recognized as a Technical Vocational Institute offering a two-year Technical Course in Home Arts. The K-12 Educational Reform has opened opportunities for Punlaan in this, its fortieth year, which because of its solid achievements as an educational institution has been approved to offer a Senior High School Technical Vocational Track last May 2014.  It opened its first section of Senior High School in June 2014, way ahead of the national implementation in 2016. Testimonials from the industry are rife, especially from 5-star hotels and prestigious restaurants who cite Punlaan graduates as being very values-oriented, exhibiting such core values as helpfulness, sincerity, courtesy, and humility. Likewise, the graduates themselves have said that Punlaan School gave them the foundation for their future as having shaped their technical, moral, and spiritual being.  Many of them have testified that they have been uplifted from being underprivileged women to professionals that are not only employable, but preferred by the industry. One such girl has said that she came from a family that sold rice cakes, but that she dreamed of a better life and freedom from poverty.  She felt that she needed a good education to make her dream come true, and so she came to Manila.  She managed to be given a scholarship in Punlaan, and there she was able to work hard first at overcoming her shyness and absorbing all she had to learn there, both receiving not only academic and technical training, but most importantly values.  She got a job at a restaurant who lauded her industriousness and her values.  This restaurant, as well as so many others, prefer Punlaan graduates. Punlaan School, now in its 40th year, is strategically positioned as a specialized school recognized by DepEd as well as by TESDA, as giving its students the competitive edge to advance globally in the field of Hospitality and Culinary Arts. Thousands of underprivileged young women still await the opportunity to be transformed in order to live with dignity. Punlaan School at present is a 60-year old structure that FPTI aims to rebuild so as to be able to accommodate 500 students from its current 140 students.  It has therefore embarked on a fund-raising campaign to raise some PhP180 million.  On March 24, 2018, the New Punlaan School had invited friends and donors to its ground breaking.  Donations are tax deductible, FPTI being accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification, and you are invited to make checks payable to FPTI-NEW PUNLAAN PROJECT, or deposit your contribution to BPI account number 0321-0256-41.  Alternatively, you may pledge to donate over a period of three years P36,000.00, by giving P12,000.00 a year (can be broken down to P1,000.00 monthly). Through the generosity of donors, Punlaan School can continue to help its graduates and their families rise out of poverty, and impact on our nation’s goal to achieve inclusive growth, empowering its beneficiaries through skills and values formation. Let us all help our underprivileged young women give wings to their dream! [email protected]