MANILA (UCAN) -- Participants in a Church fund-raising project based on small contributions are supporting the assertion of project leaders that the values it fosters are more important than the funds it generates.

"My students used to snub one-peso coins," equivalent to about two pennies (US$0.02), Edna Domo told UCA News with a laugh on April 11. The 23-year-old teacher said small coins "now mean love and big help" to some girls at the Catholic grade school where she teaches. The school joined the "Pondo ng Pinoy" (fund of the Filipino) campaign launched last year.

Pondo ng Pinoy Community Foundation Inc. is a poverty-reducing initiative of Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, based on a "theology of the crumbs" developed from the Gospel parable of Lazarus, a beggar, and the rich man. It encourages people to set aside 25 centavos a day and offer these small donations, "equivalent to crumbs," to the Church's mission with the poor.

Last August, 15 incorporators, some of them laypeople, registered Pondo ng Pinoy with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, nonprofit foundation. According to the foundation's charter, it was formed "to receive and accept regular and special contributions, donations or endowments, in cash or in kind, from members and non-members, local and abroad, and to manage the same for its programs in behalf of the needy."

Ever since Archbishop Rosales announced the project last June, Rosario de la Serna told UCA News, 13 dioceses and at least 47 Catholic and nonsectarian schools and universities in Manila and nearby areas, along with institutions from northern Philippine provinces, have contributed to the foundation.

De la Serna, a staff worker in the foundation's office, starts counting piles of coins -- manually at first, but now with a coin-counting machine -- whenever the containers of coins reaching her office begin to exceed 100 a day. The containers range from tin cans to baby powder containers.

Donations and pledges have totaled about 18 million pesos (US$331,000), she said, including coins from parishes, schools and other groups and individuals, as well as corporate contributions of up to 2.5 million pesos a company.

At a press conference March 29 in Manila, however, foundation incorporators expressed concern that media have been stressing the amount of money raised instead of the "educational component" and the motivating spirit.

"This program is not about money," Bishop Luis Tagle of Imus told reporters. The project, "based on faith," is about "changing Filipinos and our culture to make us more compassionate by doing small acts of kindness over and over," he said. The bishop, whose diocese is south of Manila, said he is tired of inaccurate media representations of the project as a gimmick to raise money for the Church.

"We target people," Archbishop Rosales told the 200 journalists gathered at a Manila restaurant. "We start by changing individuals and making them disciples, and slowly the nation will become progressive." The archbishop further explained that the local Church sees such personal transformations as little steps toward the "progressive Philippines" that Filipinos desire.

According to Bishop Tagle, "Pondo ng Pinoy" hopes to divert people from "senseless accumulation of material things, a growing insensitivity to our neighbors' needs, and a compartmentalized God pulled out on Sunday to worship, but put away when it comes to dealing with our real life, money and politics."

Donors acknowledge changes in their lives. Jun Sarmiento, a father of five, told UCA News he used to gamble before he began saving coins and handing them in at Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish in Marikina City, east of Manila. Lyn de Guzman, a fellow parishioner, said she bought "unnecessary things" from her allowance before she began donating her excess money to "Pondo ng Pinoy."

Catechesis for "Pondo ng Pinoy" at Edna Domo's school is integrated into the curriculum. For example, students in values education classes earlier in the year roamed around the campus with magnifying glasses hunting for coins. Those in art, science and history classes created papier-mache animals and globes that they used as coin banks.

"Pondong Batangan" (fund of Batangas people), a program Archbishop Rosales initiated in 2000 when he was still in charge of Lipa archdiocese in Batangas province, inspired "Pondo ng Pinoy." Archbishop Rosales served as archbishop there for 10 years before he was transferred to Manila in 2003.

Aurelia Lobos, a beneficiary of the earlier program, came from Talisay in Batangas to address the press conference in March. She narrated how the money she borrowed from "Pondong Batangan" helped her launch a business making slippers. "We have paid back our loan and our income is still increasing after it quickly doubled with my new business," Lobos said. Another woman recounted her family's progress since her husband took out a loan of 5,000 pesos for a fishing boat. Fishing now supports the schooling of their six children.

"Pondo ng Pinoy" hopes to replicate these stories, said Henrietta De Villa, another foundation incorporator. According to the incorporation documents, its funds will be made available to "poor people" through loans or grants for housing, education, health and other needs for "a good and modest life."

De Villa told UCA News on April 5 that committees already "in place" have been discussing how much money a group or person can borrow, the terms of repayment and other details that remain to be "finalized."

"A loan, or in some cases even an outright grant, may be funded after the review committee has passed the request," explained the former Philippine ambassador to the Holy See. She said loans would be granted through any of the 13 participating dioceses, or from a parish or NGO that has had "a good track record" of success working with the poor. "It's not exclusively for Church groups," de Villa clarified.

She also noted Archbishop Rosales prefers that loans be offered with no interest, but the final decision lies with the diocese or group sponsoring the application. In any case, the archbishop reportedly has set a maximum interest rate of 6 percent on loans. Bishop Tagle leads the loan applications screening committee and de Villa the promotional committee. The education committee is led by Monsignor Gerardo Santos, head of Manila archdiocese's Ministry of Education and Catechetics.

Bishops of Cubao, Kalookan, Malolos, Novaliches, Paranaque and Pasig dioceses are among the incorporators, as are Archbishop Rosales, Bishop Tagle, de Villa, Monsignor Santos and the heads of Caritas Manila, Pro-life Philippines and Tabang Mindanaw (help Mindanaw), an NGO working for peace and development in Mindanao, southern Philippines. The other two incorporators are an attorney who once chaired the Bureau of Internal Revenue Commission and a former social welfare secretary.

De Villa said the other participants are Antipolo and San Pablo dioceses, the Military Ordinariate, and Puerto Princesa and Taytay vicariates, both in Palawan province, 550 kilometers southwest of Manila.

Foundation officials say they hope it will be able to accept requests for loans by May. Its charter states that in case of dissolution, all foundation assets will be turned over to the archbishop of Manila, "to be used in such manner that will best accomplish" the foundation's general purpose.

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