Service Learning at Manila Boystown

Last March 20th, our group went to Manila Boy's town for Service Learning activity. This charity is located in Parang, Marikina.

Let me get this out of my chest...
OH MY GULAY THOSE BOYS WERE SO MAKULIT!

Due to the increasing number of small children roaming helplessly in different places of Manila without their homes and families, lost along the way and/or abandoned by their parents, the creation of Foundling Home was established. The Mahay Foundling Home was built to create a place to keep children away from harm and at the same time be afforded of the needed love and affection for their normal growth and development.

Their vision is to provide shelter, education, utmost care, protection and guidance through a package of residential care and services of the institution that will adequately prepare the children for Christian living, good citizenry and better future. 

There is need for children to inculcate moral values and positive attitudes so they can become productive, responsible and healthy members of the community. They should be provided with learning opportunities and enhance their socio-economic stability, self-sufficiency and social responsibility. There is a need to develop self-worth and sense of dignity and proper perception of their roles as members of the family and the community. 

Our Service Learning included the following activities:

1.      Good Manners and Right Conduct Session– Integrate positive values, attitudes and habits to their daily activities such as table manners, greetings, and performance of simple household chores

2.      Waste Management Session – educating the kids on the importance of recycling and its impact to the environment

3.      Fun Learning Activities – playing, storytelling and team games which offers opportunities for creativity, camaraderie and teamwork

It was tiring but rewarding. At the end of the day, learned a lot and we will cherish this experience forever.

Marcopper

Our group discussed the Marcopper Mining Accident. 

The first operations for the Marcopper mine date back to 1956, when the company Placer Dome Limited became active in the area by undertaking extensive geological mapping and drilling. Mining operations started in 1969 through the exploration of the Mt. Tapian ore deposit, containing copper concentrate, as well as gold and silver.

The first disaster happened in 1993, when the Marcopper silt dam in the Maguilaguila creek collapsed and flooded nearby villages and the Mogpog River, which has long suffered from recurring floods due to siltation caused by the collapse. The colors of the river, ending in the Tablas Straight, have ranged from peach to brown to gruesome red and toxic green or violet. Flooding was so severe that several houses were swept away. Livestock, crops and farmland was destroyed, the river was heavily polluted and two children were drowned. 

Our group's objective for the case analysis was to be able to determine what Marcopper should have done after the accident so we could resolve its environmental and social impact. 

Our group presented 3 alternative courses of action : 

1. Continue not doing anything

2. Continue Operating and participate in the cleanup effort

3. Discontinue mining but do other business using current resources and participate in cleanup effort

Based on the Markkula Framework, we recommend ACA 3(Discontinue mining but do other business using current resources and participate in cleanup effort) due to the following reasons:

1. Improve the environmental and social condition in Marinduque
2. It will ease the tension between Marcopper and the people of Marinduque and build a relationship of trust
3. Marcopper will gain public acceptance, improve its branding and most likely gain customer loyalty
4. Marcopper will gain investor confidence
5. Company leaders and their employees can take genuine pride in their accomplishments knowing that they abided all the rules or hurt people by accomplishing their goals

Shell in Nigeria

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group forms one of the world's largest businesses. It has a complex corporate organization which consists of more than 2,000 companies worldwide ultimately controlled by two parent companies. The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company, a U.K.-registered company, has a 40% interest in the group, and the remaining 60% is owned by the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, a Netherlands company. Collectively, the group is involved in oil and gas exploration, production, refining, transportation, and marketing. It has large interests in chemicals--it was probably the world's ninth, largest chemicals business in the late 1980s--and diversified activities in coal and metal mining, forestry, solar energy, and biotechnology. MOSOP campaigned against the environmental damage caused by oil extraction in the Ogoni region of Nigeria and for increased autonomy for the Ogoni ethnic group.  

Should Shell continue its operation in Nigeria given the various human rights violations and environmental deterioration related to its business operation?

There are strengths and weaknesses to this scenarios mainly :
Strengths 

1. Shell is the largest in size and revenue in the global oil industry. It is a leader in the LNG(Liquefied Natural Gas) where a portion of resource some from Nigeria. 
2. Due to the strong exploration capability in Nigeria, there is a guarantee of continued activity and increase in financial growth over the decades.

Weakness 

1.  Human Rights and Environmental Issues can degrade the image of the company due to different regimes and policies. Due to its strong presence in Nigeria, the company might be forced to withdraw because of security problems and attacks on production.
2. Shell’s ethical code of conduct has become under scrutiny due to different allegations of corruption. Employees were involved in various deals to pay bribes to the Nigerian military and other foreign citizens. The company also hid the nature of the payments to avoid suspicion.

In our opinion, Shell should continue business but operation will be based on international regulations and ethical considerations due to the following reasons:

1. It will ease the tension between Shell/Military and the Ogoni Tribe and build a relationship of trust
2. Promotes better culture on ethics and a higher sense of social responsibility amongst the employees. Employees produce best in an open and ethical environment.
3. Shell will gain public acceptance, improve its branding and most likely gain customer loyalty
4. Shell will gain investor confidence
5. Company leaders and their employees can take genuine pride in their accomplishments knowing that they abided all the rules or hurt people by accomplishing their goals. 

Lamoiyan!

Lamoiyan is the company that manufactures Hapee Toothpaste in the Philippines. With prices 30% lower than the leading brands, Hapee is the 3^rd toothpaste brand in the country. Moreover, this is a company where corporate social responsibility is embedded in its vision and mission statements. Tangibly, they are employing hearing-impaired individuals to work in the assembly line and foster a culture of tolerance among its employees (i.e. basic training on sign language to non-hearing impaired employees etc). While there are both upside and downside to investing in the skill set of hearing-impaired employees, a threat presented in the case is the lowered costs of competitors by outsourcing marketing, accounting and operations to third-party agencies. 

Given all that best practices, How do we sustain Lamoiyan Corporation despite competitors’ efforts in decreasing production costs (i.e. Contractualization and outsourcing)?

The Group presented 3 alternative courses of action :

1. Maintain the status quo of the company and continue leveraging the employees’ skillset

2. Complete transition to contractualization and outsourcing

3. Devise retrenchment program for hearing-impaired employees to decrease long-term cost

The group chose alternative 3 which I totally agree because of the following reason: 

·  The transition of competitors to outsourcing is still a threat.

· There are other ways to control costs in the company to maintain market lead, in terms of price.

· Based on the Markkula Analysis, this is the ACA that is most in line with the company’s mission and vision statements.

· There are various ways available to support growth employees and still leverage on this (i.e. loyalty of employees, quality of the products)

Gap Kids

Gap faced several labor cases, more particularly on child labor from their different factories worldwide. In El Salvador, their partner Mandarin Oriental paid it's workers about 12 cents for assembling clothes that would've retailed for $20 in the US. Workers would have to work for long hours with very low wages. There were reported violence against union supporters, sexual harassment from the supervisors, lack of drinking water, and even not being allowed to use the rest rooms and being forced to sweep the factory grounds under the hot sun as punishment. In Honduras, 13 yo girls worked 13-hour shifts and paid only 31 cents an hour. Girls would have to undergo pregnancy tests, had to work without overtime pay. 

We could try to understand this case from different perspectives. On the outset, working can be harmful to the physical, mental and moral development of a child. Child labor is defined by the International Labor Organization as 'work that deprive children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity.'

From the perspective of the children who live off from work, they can argue that we do not understand the depth of poverty in these countries. Families rely on child labor so they can survive. Children do not have to attend school because education was not compulsory. Come to think if it, working did not deprive them from going to school because they did not have to in the first place. 

From a business point of view, outsourcing from third world countries compounded by hiring underage workers drops overhead costs. However, companies cannot withstand the negative publicity associated with this practices--that is, if the company gets caught. 

How do we solve this problem then? We should have a way to improve the standard of living. A universal public education should be a norm and an imposed child labor law that prohibits this problem must be in practice. In the mean time, companies should at least provide a best working environment to these children.