Vision, Mission and Core Values
Our Vision
We envision a society where people are free, protected, and empowered to explore opportunities without the risk of exploitation and slavery.
Our Mission
To achieve this goal, we shall innovate lasting solutions to end exploitation and modern slavery.
Our Core Values
Human Transformation, compassion and respect for human dignity
We believe that exploitation and slavery is a violation of human dignity. As a force for good, we dedicate our work as our commitment and faith in action. We listen deeply and communicate with compassion. We believe in respectful and constructive criticism and recognition of good performance.
Social entrepreneurship and innovation
We innovate solutions to adapt to complex social challenges. We nurture partners to solve problems, seek new opportunities and challenge attitudes. We inspire leaders through example and diplomacy. We nurture leaders to become a powerful network of champions to mobilize for change. We always aim for long term social impact and sustainability.
Professionalism, excellence, accountability and transparency
We always account to stakeholders about the impact of our work and how we ensure optimal use of resources entrusted to us. We always promote transparency and honesty in our dealings with partners. We give space and protection to those who raise issues towards proper resolution. We always honor what we promise to deliver. We keep our processes simple, effective and efficient.
Courage and resiliency
We fight with courage and resiliency, dignity and grace. We embrace failures as learning opportunities.
Teamwork and volunteerism.
We always work as a team of professionals and volunteers guided by a continually improving management system.
The Board of Trustees
Behind Visayan Forum’s strength are founders and stewards committed to guide the staff, volunteers, and stakeholders towards a future where women and children are no longer exploited and can realize their full potential.
The Board of Trustees is composed of international experts from various fields such as law, social development, education and social entrepreneurship, amongst others.
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Mr. David T. Bussau
Chairman
- David is a renowned social entrepreneur. He built a Foundation that birthed 15 international movements addressing a broad spectrum of social issues in developing countries. He is celebrated for innovative and creative approaches to poverty alleviation. He consults for multinationals to help them create effective corporate social responsibility programs. Over the years, David has been recognized as one of Australia’s 10 Most Creative Minds, Ernst and young Entrepreneur of the Year, World Entrepreneur of the Year Academy, Singapore Special Humanitarian Awardee, Hilton Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year, Sir Ron Wilson Human Rights Awardee, Senior Australian of the Year, and recipient of the Order of Australia Medal
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Ma. Cecilia Flores – Oebanda
President and CEO
- Cecilia or “Nanay Day” to the survivors Visayan Forum cares for, is a globally – celebrated social entrepreneur and human rights activist. She is renowned for her courage and relentless pursuit of freedom for all. A Freedom Fighter even in her youth, Cecilia dedicated her life to ending modern slavery by founding Visayan Forum and establishing global best practices to fight human trafficking. She is an Anti-Slavery Awardee, a Trafficking in Persons Hero, a Modern day Slavery Abolitionist, the recipient of the first Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor, an Awardee of the World Children’s Prize and the 2013 Reuter’s Trustlaw Connect Impact Awardee.
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Ms. Shelley Lazaro
Secretary
- Shelly is a global change agent, notable business woman, and well-respected socio-civic leader. She is most known for introducing eco – friendly beauty, health and wellness solutions in the Philippines. She is the President and CEO of Cytherea Global Cosmetics, Inc. Shelley is the youngest President of the Rotary Club of Makati San Lorenzo; during her leadership, the group earned 24 awards, including the highest Most Distinguished Club, Presidential Citation with distinction, and awards for exemplary performance in almost all Avenues of Service and Areas of Focus, and The Rotary Foundation Award. Shelley was the Overall Project Manager of the Guinness World Record – audited grassroots green-lighting program in 2011 which installed more than 11,000 solar bulbs in impoverished communities in Metro Manila.
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Dr. Sofia Arce
Treasurer
- Sofie is a success story on her own. A former child domestic worker she fought her way out of poverty to success. She is undoubtedly a role model for women and children at-risk of trafficking and modern slavery. Finishing college through her earnings as a domestic worker, Sofia fulfilled her dream of becoming an educator. She served as Dean for the College of Education of the University of Batangas, and Director for Administration and Finance of the same University, until her retirement in 2014. She has a PhD in Educational Management. Since joining Visayan Forum many years back, she has helped the organization gain significant ground in its fight for the rights of Domestic Workers.
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Engr. Roland R. Pacis
Member
- Roland currently works as free-lance consultant focused on innovating approaches in strategic management and organizational change management to help NGOs and LGU partners adapt to the changing governance landscape. He has over 15 years of practical experience in mobilizing Philippine multi-stakeholders in the rescue, healing and reintegration of survivors of human trafficking and modern exploitation. He served as a project officer and policy campaigner during the early years of VF. Eventually, he served as its Deputy Director responsible in managing organizational development and change processes to respond to VF’s rapid organizational expansion as a major global anti-trafficking group. In 2013, he took a sabbatical and acquired his Masters in Development Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
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Ms. Ma. Luisa Zuniga – Carmine
Member
- Lulu is an international expert on social development working with the Asian Development Bank. She also served as Consultant for World Bank Funded Projects in the past. For almost 2 decades, she worked in community development focusing on cooperative development, environmental protection and management, relief and rehabilitation, and migrant working children both in the Philippines and abroad. She has published numerous literature on poverty reduction covering various countries. An Expert on the poverty and slavery nexus, Lulu helped Visayan Forum build its blueprint for interventions.
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Atty. Laurence Arroyo
Member
- Laurence is Founding Partner at one of the country’s most respected Law Offices – the Flaminiano, Arroyo, and Duenas Law Office. He also teaches Law at theAteneo de Manila University School of Law. He was appointed by the Supreme Court to serve as a Member of the Technical Working Group on the Revisions to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure. He was named an “up-and-coming” dispute resolution lawyer by Chambers Asia and an “ADR Expert” by AP Legal 500
The Advisory Board
Members of the Advisory Board are also helping the foundation mobilize stakeholders from the private sector.
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MS. KATIE FORD
Katie is the CEO of Freedom for All Foundation, a global anti-slavery organization that sustains solutions and partners with on-the-ground organizations and private businesses to end modern day slavery through programs to ensure zero-slavery footprint in supply chains, and by supporting direct interventions, prevention and protection programs, and advocacy and campaigns in different countries.
Katie was the former Ford Models, Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer . She left her post to pursue her mission as an anti-slavery abolitionist. She served as Global Ambassador for Free the Slaves and is now a UN Ambassador of Goodwill for her fight against the increasing human trafficking incidences in the world.
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MR. GEOFF OSBORNE
Geoff lives in Sydney with his wife and four children. He holds Bachelor degrees in Commerce and in Law. He has worked as a lawyer for 27 years, 17 years of which have been in his own legal practice, Geoff Osborne & Associates.
Geoff has also been involved in the development of micro enterprise projects in Indonesia, the Philippines and Burundi, Africa, for over 10 years.
Geoff is a board member of Maranatha Trust and the Wholistic Transformation Resource Center Foundation, Inc.
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MS. KIM BERNARDO – LOKIN
An elected Partylist Representative in the 12th Congress, Kim co-authored the Anti-Violence Against Women & Children Act and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.
A Journalist by profession, she has extensive experience in TV, Radio and Print media. She was a political and business anchor for ABS CBN News & Current Affairs. She is currently a business columnist and features contributor for The Manila Times, and the Managing Editor of business and lifestyle magazine, “Business+Class”.
A widely-respected civic leader, Kim has been at the helm of various socio-civic and charitable organizations such as Zonta Club of Pasig, Club Bulakeno, The Catholic Women’s Club, and Friends for Cultural Concerns of the Philippines. Kim has also been a long-time volunteer-partner of Visayan Forum.
Our Founder
Cecilia with Survivors at the Center of Hope
Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda or Cecilia to friends and partners, or “Nanay Day” to the girls she rescues from trafficking and slavery, is the Founder and President of the Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. “Nanay” in Filipino means Mother; and “Day” is a contraction of “Inday”, a term of endearment for women from the Visayas
Cecilia is a globally recognized human rights advocate and a multi-awarded freedom fighter. She is also regarded as an international expert on human trafficking, child labor and domestic work. She is currently the Women’s Sector NGO representative at the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and a member of the Presidential Taskforce Against Illegal Recruitment (PTFAIR).
She hails from Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. Born out of poverty, at age 5, Cecil learned the harsh realities of child labor as she walked the streets of her home town peddling fish. She spent most of her life as a freedom fighter – working with the urban poor, peasants, sugar plantation workers, women, youth and children. Because of her struggle, she became a political prisoner for four years under the Marcos dictatorship. Pregnant when captured, she eventually gave birth and raised two children while incarcerated. She was released after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Immediately after, she worked on the blueprint for Visayan Forum.
Cecilia received the Anti-Slavery Award 2005 from Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization. She was also recognized by the UK Government as one of the Modern-Day Abolitionists in the celebration of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 2007.
In 2008, Cecil was conferred with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship at the Oxford University in the UK by the Skoll Foundation. She was also named by the US Department of State as one of its Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery in its 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report and was presented the first Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor by the US Department of Labor.
She was also one of the honorary awardees of the 2011 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, whose patrons include H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden and Nelson Mandela. She was recently presented the Prix Caritas Award 2011 by Caritas Switzerland, for her pioneering and innovative work in the fight against child prostitution, child trafficking and child labor.
In 2013, The CNN Freedom Project released a 2-hour documentary entitled “The Fighters” that chronicles her work in leading the VF team in rescuing vulnerable persons from human trafficking, transforming survivors’ lives, and engaging strategic partners to advance the cause. It features the realities, struggles and triumphs of fighting modern slavery through the “eyes of those risking their lives so that others may live theirs in freedom”. In the same year, the Canada-based,We Love Heroes Organization, named her their First Hero.
Recently, in their Mothers of Innovation Report 2014, the Family Innovation Zone in the United kingdom named Cecilia as a Mother-Innovator who created “Systemic Innovation”. Through the years, Cecilia has been featured in leadership and heroism profiles by various magazines and newspapers.
Amidst all the awards and recognitions however, Cecilia believes that the most prestigious regard she has ever been given is the love and affection of the women and girls that she cares for at Visayan Forum’s shelters. Further, she admits that being respected as a global expert and gracing an international stage to move people into ending slavery is a responsibility she is able to fulfill because of the happiness and inspiration of being mother to young women and children whose capacity to love and hope is awe-inspiring despite the evil that they have been through.
Awards & Citations
Cecilia receives 2013 TrsutLaw Connect Impact Award from Thomson Reuters Foundation
VF’s work with child domestic workers has been cited by the International Labour Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and the United Nations Girls Education Initiative as an international best practice.
The anti-trafficking task forces in ports and airports convened by VF with Philippine government agencies and private shipping companies were recognized as a global best practice by the U.S. Department of State in its 2005 Trafficking in Persons report.
In 2009, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation presented the Eduardo Aboitiz Award for Outstanding Institution to VF for our work in Visayas and Mindanao.
VF has been instrumental in the passage of laws on anti-trafficking in persons, child labor, and the protection of domestic workers:
VF’s legal research partnership with White & Case and Grasty Quintana Majlis & Cia, won The TrustLaw Impact Award given by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The research on policies and legislation related to the protection of domestic workers was used by VF to negotiate for landmark legislation, the Magna Carta for Domestic Workers (or Batas Kasambahay), which was passed in February 2013. It has provided protection and welfare to around two million domestic workers in the Philippines.
VF led the campaign for the Philippines to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention 189 or the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. VF served as the Secretariat of the Technical Working Group of the Philippine Campaign on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, a multi‐sectoral initiative to build public support for the protection of Filipino domestic workers. As the Secretariat, VF was responsible for resource mobilization and management, coordination among members, and provision of technical support to the Campaign.
VF was featured in a two-hour CNN Freedom Project documentary entitled “The Fighters”, which became instrumental in busting a child pornography ring.
Over 30,000 trafficking survivors and at-risk individuals have graduated from IT and skills training and education support provided by VF and partners
Previously, VF served as the Philippine and Southeast Asian Secretariat for Global March against Child Labor, Convenor for the Task Force on Child Domestic Workers in Asia, Convenor for the Multi-Sectoral Network against Trafficking in Persons (MSNAT), and Vice-Chair for the Philippine NGO Coalition on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. VF was a member of the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour National Monitoring Team and the National Steering Committee of UNICEF’s Sixth Country Program for Children.
To know more about VF’s impact, as recognized and evaluated by various agencies, please click this button: Awards & Citations
The Team
The Visayan Forum community is led by a team of professionals with a diverse set of skills and expertise bound together by a lifelong commitment to be in the service of God and Country. This team of eleven serves as the support system for the President and CEO, and as coordinators of the organization’s programs and services on a national and regional scale.
Mr. Diego Dreu or Bong is VF’s Chief Finance Officer. He is an accomplished Accounting and Finance Professional who has gained more than 20 years of rich experience in the Finance, Controllership, Accounting, Tax Management, Budget and Forecast, Internal Auditing, and Strategic and Cost Management. He joins VF with a proven track record of delivering best possible results and added value in a fast-paced business environment. A man of faith, he is most known for his honesty and integrity, and compassion and gentleness. Kuya Bong is not only the CFO, he is also a jolly father-figure at work.
Sherryl M. Loseno serves as Visayan Forum’s Coordinator for Protective Care Services. Sheryl has a degree in Social Work from Bicol University, and is a licensed Social Worker. Sheryl has been with VF for over a decade. Prior to serving as the Head for all of VF’s protective care services, She managed VF’s various shelter facilities including the long-term safe house, the halfway houses in Manila North Harbor, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and Zamboanga City Port. She has made significant contribution to VF’s globally celebrated anti-trafficking direct interventions for victim-survivors.
Ari Regino is VF’s Projects and Communications Officer. He has a degree in Legal Management from Ateneo de Zamboanga University, with Honors. He has attended trainings and courses on various development issues, in the Philippines and abroad. Prior to joining VF, he was Program Director of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines, and Coordinator for Advocacy and Development of Ateneo de Zamboanga University. A staunch advocate of volunteerism and servant-leadership, Ari is a member of different citizen’s action groups, including NAMFREL where he currently serves as Regional Director for Mindanao.
Sharmila Parmanand is VF’s Director for Policy and Advocacy Resource Center. Sharms has a Masters in Gender and Development from the University of Melbourne where she studied on an Australian Leadership Award Scholarship and also received the Leadership in Communities Award. She has a Bachelor’s in Political Science, Major in Global Politics, cum laude, from Ateneo de Manila. She was a consultant for Devex and the Women’s Legal Bureau and a lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila and the University of Vermont. She did internships with Save the Children Australia and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the Philippines. Her Master’s thesis on the effect of Filipino women’s engagement with microcredit on their household relations was presented at the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Conference in Sydney and the Australian Sociological Association Annual Conference in Brisbane.
Ernest De la Cuesta is Coordinator of the iFIGHT Movement. He recently graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Development Studies from De La Salle University. He has had extensive volunteer experience in numerous outreach programs such as medical missions, relief missions, education programs for underprivileged children, and fund-raising activities. He has a big heart to help and a passion to serve. He truly believes in the impact this generation can make in ending trafficking.
Ivan Angelo Quiwa is VF’s Coordinator for Social Enterprise. After acquiring a Masters’ on Political Economy from the University of Asia and The Pacific, Ivan dedicated himself to improving the quality of life in impoverished communities. He worked with different NGO’s in creating sustainable community enterprises. As an advocate of social entrepreneurship, he started his own enterprise called Backburn, winner of the 2011 “I am a Change Maker Challenge” of the British Council, Philippines. With his experience and passion, Ivan is now creating economic opportunities for members of Bantay Komunidad and survivors of human trafficking at VF.
Salvador Acupan has been Visayan Forum’s Regional Coordinator for Western Visayas since 2004. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology from Carlos Hilado Memorial Sate College. Buddy has been engaged in Community Development Work for more than 20 years. For over 13 years, he served Negros Occidental’s farmers, sugar workers, fisherfolk, and women and children through the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). He has completed Certificate Courses on various development disciplines in the Philippines and abroad, including a Development Management Course at the Asian Institute of Management Center for Entrepreneurship.
Romualdo Seneris II serves as VF’s Regional Coordinator for Central Visayas. He has a Bachelor of Laws degree from Silliman University, and is currently completing his Masters in Educational Management at St. Paul University in Dumaguete. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy from St. Joseph Seminary College. Dondee is also serving as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Gender Watch Against Violence and Exploitation (GWAVE), and Convenor of the Dumaguete Cycling Advocacy Network. An advocate of youth leadership, Dondee has dedicated over a decade of his life as a youth leader, minister and college instructor. These days, he serves to prevent and protect vulnerable youth and children from being enslaved.
Gloria Patayan is Visayan Forum’s Team Leader in Western Mindanao. Gloria has both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Social Work from Western Mindanao State University. A seasoned Social Worker, Gloria has been caring for the poor, the vulnerable, and the abused for almost twenty years – serving the people of Payatas (Manila), of Zamboanga Sibugay, and Zamboanga City. As a licensed social worker, Gloria keeps herself updated with new ways of serving and caring through various trainings conducted by government, international organizations, and expert groups.
The Volunteers
At the heart of Visayan Forum’s operations are its volunteers. These are exceptional individuals who selflessly share their skills, time, and energy in pursuit of VF’s vision and mission. Here are current volunteers at Visayan Forum.
Joy is a businesswoman by profession who opted to selflessly share her time, skills, and resources to Visayan Forum as a full-time volunteer. She has a degree in Multimedia Arts from the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde. Believing in joy-based philanthropy, Joy’s sense of life is defined by meaningful service to those who need it most – thus helping those at-risk to build their resiliency against trafficking, and hope for those who have been victimized. Her mantra – breathe in prayer and love, exhale prayer and love.
As a result of her growing awareness of modern slavery and an inherent love for the Philippines, Bek, fresh from College, decided to live in the Philippines to volunteer with Visayan Forum. Bek serves as an iFIGHT Ambassador, and frequents schools with the iFIGHT team to educate and empower students to fight human trafficking. Bek also helps survivors at the Center of Hope rebuild their lives through workshops that help them strengthen and deepen their spirituality. Bek truly believes in the power of people to cause change, and so, loves working with a team and organisation that is built on the potential of people to rise up, be transformed and really make a difference. Bek has a degree in Early Childhood Education from the Macquarie University in Sydney Australia