About the Foundation

As the leading educational publisher in the Philippines, Vibal Publishing House feels the growing demand for effective education and high-quality information in the global knowledge economy. Vibal Foundation extends this commitment and responsibility by focusing on the same thing Vibal Publishing House does—education in the broadest sense of the word.

We aim to make a difference by promoting literacy (both print and digital), learning, cultural awareness and preservation, and great teaching. We do this by collaborating with leading businesses, civic organizations, and other non-profits to increase and diffuse knowledge; share good practice; foster innovation; and find workable solutions to the educational disadvantages facing millions of young people and adults across the Philippines.

Vision and Mission

Knowledge and creativity are central to the richness of people’s lives and to the progress of societies. As change in our communities becomes more constant and as ideas, technologies and people move more rapidly, there is a profound desire to better understand the world, to connect more deeply with others, to come to terms with multiple and conflicting values and to find more meaningful ways to participate fully as citizens. It is the vision of Vibal Foundation to bring about positive changes in the lives of Filipinos everywhere through increased access to quality education. We work to support the perpetual human search for knowledge, meaning and understanding.

Key Themes

Revitalizing Education

Vibal Foundation promotes and supports formal and informal education for children, teenagers and adults. We serve as a laboratory to create methods and models of innovative informal education and link them to the formal education system. Our delivery platforms take advantage of a range of interactive, web-based technologies, and our programs encourage continuous exploration by learners of all ages. We deliver innovative educational experiences right to students and their teachers, providing fully equipped literacy and new media programs to schools and community centers across the Philippines.

Free lesson plans, modules, and interactive exercises are available in E-Turo.org, our e-learning portal, while WikiPilipinas.org makes it easy for users to find the information they need on a given topic about the Philippines. Filipiniana.net‘s collections are accompanied by editorial and learning supplements along with multimedia content for users to better appreciate primary source material.

We also publish books and magazines that keep Filipinos in touch with contemporary events as well as with their history, society and culture. We adhere to high standards of publishing. Our strong commitment to diversity in publishing means we support a range of initiatives in aimed at promoting diversity in the Philippine book world and seek out new titles and imprints that will also appeal to particular niches and age groups. We support and encourage publishing in local languages, extending our commitment to making great books accessible to as wide an audience as we can reach.

Enabling people to learn about new topics, or more about an existing passion, in ways they will find engaging, entertaining and challenging is fundamental to Vibal Foundation’s initiatives.

Stimulating Creativity and Cultural Excellence

In our projects, we seek to establish a reputation for creative and innovative content that breaks new ground and sets trends. WikiPilipinas—initially considered as a mere ‘fork’ of Wikipedia—is now known as one of the most innovative applications of open source wiki technology and a successful exercise in collaborative content creation. The Philippine Online Chronicles (thepoc.net) is pioneering a new type of journalism: we report viewpoints and perspectives on the news along with the facts of the news.

We use new media and social networking tools to deliver information in customized ways and bring our resources to Filipino audiences. Digitizing objects and making them accessible online are major priorities, as is exploring next-generation technologies that speak to “digital natives” who expect to be reached online. Combining our content with audio, video and digital technologies creates a truly multimedia platform, allowing us to build on our coverage with interactive tools, maps and multimedia features.

Sharing Knowledge About the Philippines, its Regions and Communities

The modern Philippines is an incredibly diverse place, home to a rich range of cultures and communities. Vibal Foundation portrays and celebrates this diversity at national, regional and local levels. We produce content in Filipino, English and Spanish, and we intend to publish more in other Philippine languages. We will launch WikiCebuano and 100 Nobelang Cebuano in 2010, while POC will offer news articles sourced from different local publications and regional broadcasts in the community-based POC Radyo. We also encourage people to share experiences, from the great national occasions to important local events, with our range of writing projects.