Just had a great board meeting with our new board members. A huge welcome from the GSF team to Beth Honig, Dr John Demartini, April Chandler and James Matthews!Â
The last two weeks have been weeks of firsts for our boards. Last Friday we had the first board meeting with the new board members of GSF UK and today we’ve had the first board meeting with GSF Philippines! We are all very excited about the Build a House, Build a Home project and are all working to deliver the best possible programme going forward in terms of skills training and livelihood projects.
We’re happy to announce the new board as Greg Secker, Amy Leveson Gower, James Mathews, Glady Bunau, DR June Sanico and Fransisco B. Figura.
We had such a great time at MoDa de Filipinas – London’s exciting new showcase for emerging South East Asian Designers on Saturday!
Thank you to Ronnie Del Barrio and Ditsé Productions for an amazing event and for their warm words about the work of the Greg Secker Foundation in the Philippines and our Build a House, Build a Home programme, and to the Philippine Ambassador and Embassy for their keen interest in our project. We are sure we’ll work together in the future and are looking forward to seeing all the talented Philippine Designs to come.
Greg with His Excellency Evan P. Garcia, the Philippine Ambassador to the UK.
Marie with Her Excellency Jocelyn Batoon Garcia, former Philippine Ambassador to Thailand.
Greg and his partner Rachel at the photo wallÂ
It’s key for charities to work together. To share lessons learned to reach the ultimate goal of making a lasting impact. That is why this Charity Tuesday the Foundation team and sir Levi, the director of the outreach team from Central Philippine University, have been on a fact-finding mission and met with the housing building charity Gawad Kalinga in Iloilo.
Eric, their representative on site, explained to us how they have worked with their beneficiaries to create a sustainable future. Thank you for the time and all the great advice!
It’s 3 years since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan is the strongest Typhoon ever recorded on landfall and affected an estimated 14 million people, destroying, and damaging 5 million homes, and taking away sources of income for more than 6 million workers. Three years have now passed, disaster relief ended already in the beginning of 2014 and reconstruction efforts are focused on `building back better`. We are following that by building 100 homes strong enough to withstand future typhoons. As well as `building back better` our focus is on helping our beneficiaries become more resilient to natural disasters, to help them thrive and not just survive. We are therefore working with the Central Philippine University to provide skills training and livelihood programs.
How are you marking the anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan? We have held a day of remembrance with our beneficiaries, local government, and the Central Philippine University. We started the day by marking the impact of Typhoon Haiyan and holding a minute’s silence, we then moved on to vital natural disaster preparations headed by Mr. Art John Caliste, the Municipal Risk Reduction Management Council Officer, and ended with focus group discussions on skills training and livelihood programmes headed by Mr. Levi Delos Santos, head of the Outreach Team from the Central Philippine University.
Preparation is vital in the face of natural disasters such as Typhoons. It was therefore very important for us to focus the day on teaching our beneficiaries lifesaving skills that can prepare them and their families for what to do if a calamity were to hit, making them more equipped and resilient in the face of future disasters.
We learned so much today, not only from our speakers but also from our beneficiaries. Together we are building a stronger community!Â
Going shopping this Black Friday weekend? Make sure to come to LUSH UK where we will be selling Charity Pots in aid of the foundation! We’re so happy to be this weekend’s charity of choice for the charity pot. Make sure to pop by Lush Westfield’s to get your hand on an exclusive Greg Secker Foundation hand and body lotion. All profits are in aid of the foundations housing building project in the Philippines – Build a House, Build a Home.Â
Not only will you get great skin, you’ll also have contributed to helping a community rebuild itself. Now that’s what I call #WINNING
#PamperWithAPurpose
“We don’t want a lot for Christmas, we won’t even wish for snow. The only thing we want is bricks.â€
Launched on #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving, this Christmas we want you to get in the festive spirit of contribution by buying a brick. Your brick will help a community in the Philippines restore themselves. Our administrative and management costs comes from our biggest benefactor, Greg Secker, and his companies. This means that 100% of your donation goes straight to our project and ensures that every penny you donate goes directly to building brighter futures in the Philippines.Â
We are building 100 homes for people whose lives were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. The Foundation building homes strong enough to withstand future typhoons, a multipurpose training centre, and are collaborating with the Central Philippine University to provide lifesaving skills training.
Show your support – Buy a Brick and send us your #BrickPic!
After taking a year off, we are so excited that the Trade-A-Thons are back! A massive thank you to Learn to Trade Australia for hosting such an amazing Trade-A-Thon event in aid of the foundation on  November 25th. We are so happy to have you as one our biggest benefactors and are so grateful to all the people that attended for their support. Your support enables us to rebuild a community in the Philippines hard hit by Typhoon Haiyan. Together we can and will do more!
Trade-A-Thon is a live trading event where the profits from the ticket price and the commission from the brokerage is donated to the Foundation. There are more Trade-A-Thons to come in 2017, with the UK starting off the new year with an event in London on the 25th of January.
Get in touch at info@gregseckerfoundation.com if you’d like to hear more.
    
Â
Each Christmas, Greg’s companies donate staff time, food and presents for families in the local area who are struggling over Christmas, with the foundation organising and planning the event. This year, we have held basket Brigades in the UK, Australia, and the Philippines.
In the UK, we worked with the Salvation Army Wandsworth, helping 76 families get by this Christmas. As our CEO Greg said,
“It’s a great way to drum up some Christmas cheer to the families. Many of us are lucky enough to have families and friends who buy each other presents and food, so it is good to give to others and help them through, what many find a lonely and difficult time.”
On December 20th, we packed 76 food boxes and gifts for 161 children, which we hand-delivered to the families and the Salvation Army. Basket brigade is an initiative we are so proud to be a part of, and we are extremely grateful to Greg Secker, Learn to Trade UK, SmartCharts, Capital Index and FX Capital for their passion to contribution, which enabled us to help so many families this Christmas. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun organising it.
Basket Brigade is an alternative Christmas party and the one that staff look forward to every year. Here in the UK, London Live came along to our Basket Brigade as we urged more companies to get involved and spoke about the rise of foodbank users the past years. It may sound shocking, but 1 in 5 families use foodbanks at least once in their life here in the UK.Â
Not only has Greg’s companies done basket brigade in the UK, they have also held them in Australia and the Philippines! In the Philippines, the team bought presents and delivered them to the children of House of Refuge, the Manila-based orphanage the foundation donated a medical clinic to earlier this year!
In Australia, Learn to Trade was spreading the Christmas Spirit on behalf of the Greg Secker Foundation with a visit at Wesley Mission!Â
We had such a rewarding and fun time, but hope that next year there will be fewer families in need of our assistance.
We have started construction on our Build a House, Build a Home Project! We are building 100 homes for victims of Typhoon Haiyan as well as a multipurpose training centre.
Stay tuned for more updates! Â
