2022 was a crazy year in more ways than one.

We started the year with pandemic rules still limiting what was possible. Sports was still not allowed at all, while youth center activities were restricted. Our students struggled in many ways during the pandemic, but we strived to provide the support needed to at least lessen the blow. From April onwards, some sports became possible. Youth Center activities could grow.

And then all of a sudden everything kind of opened up.

It went from 0 to 100 so fast and everyone did their best to keep up. With leagues, tournaments, and even Team Philippines for the Street Child World Cup, the sports side of things ramped up fast. You can also check out the highlights from the Fairplay Cup by clicking this link here, as we were able to host our own tournaments too.

For now, see below the Quarter 4 Newsletter (Oct-Dec, 2022) as we recap the progress of our students for the last three months of the year.

Fairplay 2023 Goals

As we start the new year, Fairplay has some big goals to accomplish.

The biggest goal is to end the year with a sustainability rate of 50%. This means 50% of our operating expenses should come from sustainable sources, including revenue from hosting leagues and tournaments, open play, and open sessions for those outside of Payatas, from the Fairplay Cafe, and from individual sponsors of our Scholars. This will mean a much lower reliance of donations, especially grants and larger corporate donations too. We will share more about this in the next update as our financial accounts are being audited and so this can be presented further to show our current situation and future goals.

With the insecurity of the COVID period, and with the rapid rise in the cost living, Fairplay wants to secure the long-term future of the organisation. Having built on our staff over 2022, we are in the position to do so and improve these sustainable sources of revenue through our projects. Another positive side of this is how key staff members to achieve this have come through the Fairplay Scholarship themselves as children we have supported for many years. Having graduated from Senior High School and College, these Scholars are helping us mentor the next batch of Scholars while we develop these sustainable strategies further. Now we’re out of the pandemic, it’s the perfect time to develop this.

For our Fairplay Scholars, an average improvement of 2 points in their grades is also the target. In the Philippines, grades typically go from the lowest of 75 to a high of 95, and so 2 points means moving from 78 to 80, or 85 to 87. Their social and emotional KPIs are also tracked and we will soon be sharing progress of these as we are currently analysing and sorting through the data from 2022. Following the start of face-to-face classes again and grading cards coming back from Quarter 1, we are well on track to accomplish this.

Finally, a big target for the year is making progress in the land titling of our facilities. In recent years, surveys have begun around the area to provide land titles. Fairplay’s Youth Center and Cafe buildings currently have no titles (the Sports Center does) and so this would be a big win for us for the future. The government purchased the land titles and are surveying the area. This may take more time, but is another goal for our long-term future.

With much more in the coming months, for now please read through the Quarterly Newsletter and follow us on Facebook to see the regular updates we post there of what’s happening at Fairplay.