About Us
Share An Opportunity Philippines is a non-profit Christian development and advocacy organization founded in August 8, 1996 with a vision of raising generations of Filipino children nurtured to their God-given potential for nation building through its mission of engaging children, families and communities of partners for transformation. It traces its roots to Baptist World Aid Australia’s “Support An Orphan” program. It is now in its 27th year of doing life-transforming work in the Philippines, serving the marginalized and most vulnerable children. To date, it has organized 96 duly-registered community-based organizations and 176 children’s clubs federated into 15 youth organizations. SAO and its organized groups have strong working relationships with local government units in their localities. Employing child-rights programing, SAO PH’s approach is to put children and their capabilities at the center of community development. Its key strategies are capacity building, group formation and networking and collaboration in cultivating young leaders equipped in their capacity to serve; empowering children to participate and ensure their perspectives are reflected in community and government decision-making processes; and strengthening families and communities to be sensitive to children’s needs and protective of their rights.
Vision Statement
Generations of Filipino children nurtured to their God-given potential for nation building.
Mission Statement
We depend on God in engaging children, families, and community of partners for transformation.
SAO Distinctive
We depend on God
We seek our deepest delight in Jesus Christ and acknowledge that we can do nothing apart from Him. Our desire is to abide in Him constantly and in all things pray unceasingly. Therefore, we are intentional in building prayer into the visible life of our organization at all levels. God is our provider and we depend on Him.
We value God-designed relationships
Like the God we serve, we are social beings with a need for relationships. We live our lives with people. We can only truly experience the reality of Jesus Christ as we are in a relationship with others. We seek to build authentic relationships with individuals and other like-minded organizations. Because we value people, the needs concerns and issues of people are important to us. Even in our organizational decisions, people and our relationships are of utmost value to us.
We participate in transforming lives
We intently participate in the transforming the lives of the people God has entrusted to us. Through God’s help, we enable children and their families to experience God and become what God has destined them to be. We seek to improve their life skills by building their confidence and motivation. We acknowledge that the beginning of a transformed life is found in Jesus Christ and it is demonstrated by “bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10)
We are excellent in character and competent in service
We want SAO to be a name associated with integrity, service, consistency, innovation and excellence. We are committed to practicing honesty and integrity and be above-reproach in demonstrating the highest standard of professional excellence. We demonstrate pride in our contributions to the workplace and continue to strive to improve them daily.
We are a learning organization
We challenge ourselves to be the best that we can be through education, training, community service and life-long learning. We passionately pursue growth and learning. We are committed and strive to lead in our practice and be able to provide quality services through breakthrough thinking. We are open to innovative solutions and in finding new ways in doing things. We embrace and drive change
Our Logo
Original SAO Philippines’ Logo
SAO considers the Christian faith in the most appropriate Filipino way, symbolized by the bamboo cross. SAO commits to serve the most needy and vulnerable children of Philippine society who aspire to become responsible adults and citizens of the land through education and strong support of the family, the church and society
SAO PH
Our new logo hypes on the theme—“Harnessing the next generation’s potentials for a stronger, progressive nation.” It positions SAO as the catalyst of a promising future as it invests on the well-being of families through its core involvement in creating and establishing livelihood programs, enterprises and capacity building. Strong families build stronger communities which inevitably lead to a progressive country. The logo depicts the family in a child-like, playful vector to infuse a warm connection to Filipinos and other audiences of all ages worldwide. Juxtaposed on a globe rendered in bluish hue to underline the message of hope, this logo with its solid graphic elements further defines that strong nations contribute to an ideal world. The stylized, symbolic rendition of the cross subtly suggests it is one’s adherence to positive values as taught and exemplified in God’s Word that will bind the families, communities, countries towards achieving its full potentials and vision. Let this much needed ignition start in the Philippines with each citizen learning to unselfishly ”Share an Opportunity”.
Our History
Share an Opportunity (SAO) Philippines Inc. traces its roots to the many years of work of Baptist World Aid Australia almost three decades ago through its Support an Orphan program. The organization’s journey has started in a simple and orthodox manner which focused on education as way out of the poverty cycle.
True enough, many sponsored children who have finished their education became better off because of the financial assistance and other developmental support extended by the organization. New doors were opened to them and a good number of them serve as leaders in churches and communities.
Through the years, SAO’s understanding of the strategic role of children in society deepened. We’ve realized that investing in children is investing in the future society as they are about 35% of the total population of the Philippines as of 2016. We experience how children are good links to their families and to their communities. We strongly believe that nurturing children will strengthen families and in turn will bring transformation to the communities where they belong. They are effective agents of change who are capable of facilitating development in schools, families, and communities.
As SAO matures, we were able to identify the need of the communities to have their own sustainable source of livelihood in order to curtail the poverty cycle—enabling communities to respond to the needs of the children.