(continuing my string of globaly-recognized Filipino’s posts…)

A team of 5 Filipinio’s has created a business plan which has been nominated for the final 5 entries for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Entrepreneurship Competition- grand Prize being $100,000 USD. The final 5 came from a pool of 165 other entries and this is the first time any Filipino has reached the finals in it’s 16 year history.

The team’s plan, titled “CentroMigrante” works as follows:

“Over 200 million impoverished people in developing countries leave their rural hometowns and flock to urban areas to seek employment but are usually unable to afford decent lodging while searching and waiting for jobs. In the Philippines, as many as 1 million Filipinos a year spend up to six months away from their home provinces, looking for jobs as seafarers in Manila’s port areas with most of them living in shanties under depressed and undignified living conditions.

“CentroMigrante provides a unique solution to this problem with a self-help business model that provides clean, safe and affordable urban housing for such indigent, transient job seekers. The team tested the market through a pilot shelter in Manila that has shown profitability during the past two years, and has already helped 80,000 Filipinos.

“They are ready to start construction in the 4th quarter of this year, and are currently seeking an initial investment of quarter of a million dollars to build the first phase of the shelter network in Manila.”

The members of the CentroMigrante team are Illac Diaz (team leader), Niel Ruiz, Saldivar-Sali Artessa, Tina LaForteza, and Chester Yu.

Congratulations to the team! Good luck!

(original article seen in Phliippine News.com ^[1])