MANILA, Philippines - The leading French newspaper Le Figaro recently lauded Gawad Kalinga and its founder, Tony Meloto.

(The following article appeared in leading French newspaper Le Figaro. The translation is posted below, with permission from the journalist.)

Success. Former employee of Procter and Gamble changed his life at 35 years old. Once a Christian missionary, he created an NGO to fight poverty in the Philippines. In particular, thanks to social entrepreneurship.

“You build with values, not only with money”, “I prefer the freedom to serve, more than the power to rule”… It is quotes like these that Tony Meloto spreads wherever he goes. And for those who are not yet completely convinced, he adds a few keywords: honesty, sharing, simplicity, work… That’s how he is. At 63, this Filipino, who is the guest of honour at UNESCO’s Planetworkshops which took place in June in Paris, mixes with the world’s most powerful people, yet finds his happiness and reason to live among the poorest of his country by helping them to find out how to start over and achieve a better life.

With an approach that has nothing to do with Charity, where dollars are fading away too often because of a lack of project. Tito Tony (uncle Tony), as he is often called by his fellow citizen manages to mix two words often incompatible in today’s world: liberal and social. It is after all not surprising. This guy with such communicative energy has graduated in Economics and turns out to be a missionary by vocation.

His first steps in life drove him however quite far from what he has become nowadays. Born into a poor family, Antonio was a good student. After high school, he was granted a one-year-scholarship in the US. A few years later he graduated from Manila University and his career path seemed obvious: work at Procter & Gamble. “He worked hard and quickly became the yuppie he dreamed to be: having his own apartment, a car and famous brand clothes” recounts Charlson L. Ong in his book. Tony Meloto worked 7 years for the American company, before starting his own.

In Manila slums

Suddenly, at 35, everything changed: he wanted to leave the life behind which seemed only reserved for the elite, a superficial life that leaves millions of people behind in extreme poverty and violence. It did not match his Christian values anymore that were deeply ingrained into him. He dropped everything and changed. “I became a Christian missionary at first”, recounts Meloto, before he decides to tackle the transformation of the society. “I had to re-discover the human values in order to be able to show humanity myself towards the poor”. Being well in his forties, Tony Meloto creates his NGO called Gawad Kalinga, which means to give care.  He infiltrates Manila’s big slums with all its violence, gangs and dealers. “Some are interested in the victims, the women and the children, but I am targeting the men, the ones responsible”. The goal is: to bring about change by restoring their human dignity. This begins with building houses and villages with schools, health centres and farms. In the process of restoring their dignity, these men help in building community to end poverty “after signing a strict commitment to rules of good behaviour”.

Of course there are some who fail: around 20% relapse.  “This leaves the way to 80% who succeed”, points out Tony Meloto with a big smile. “Even in the worse thugs there is always something good. This is what I target”. Disappointments are incidentally not where one will always predicts they might come from. The day that several top figures from the Church denounced the campaign he was carrying out against tuberculosis, because a subsidiary of the large pharmaceutical company which supported him is selling condoms, he is taken aback. “This issue caused much comments. It made me very popular”. Tony Meloto is also that: an radical optimistic.

Several large companies (Air France-KLM, Shell, Total, Schneider Electric) and in the course of time, hundreds of thousands of volunteers, coming for short/long periods from all over the world, follow him and the Gawad Kalinga movement of empowering the poor to live dignified and better lives. As of today, nearly 2,000 communities have been launched. This relates to one million people, while he targets 5 million. A drop compared to the harsh reality of the poverty statistics in the Philippines where 25 million people are living in extreme poverty and 25 others are hardly over the poverty line. Besides these villages, he launched an incubator for social entrepreneurship. His eldest daughters, his son-in-law, everyone is contributing their share. Several social enterprises have been created.

Tony Meloto is also striding across universities and European Grandes Ecoles (note : the equivalent of the American Ivy Leagues) to open the doors for students to come to the Philippines and set up a social enterprise. “Why is it, when someone speaks about Asia, Europeans understand only China?” asks Tony Meloto. France is one of his favourite countries. “It is French history that inspired me”, he says, with a hint of mischief. As a matter of fact, he hosts two young French graduates who created their start-up social enterprise. His house is always full of international interns and young social entrepreneurs.

Rewards, prizes and endowments are accumulating. But his way of life doesn’t change at all: no credit card, no bank account, “question of coherence” and of means, since his wife supports in funding his missions and achieving his dreams.  “I am like a virus. My only goal : that my ideas contaminate people.”

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Read some of Tony Meloto's more recent writings/speeches here:

* PROSPER WITH HONOR: Faith and Development in the Philippines
* Kindness Makes Us One Global Family

* Building the GK Brand in England, Stone by Stone

* There Will Always Be Christmas

* Skoll Award to Gawad Kalinga: Freedom to Serve