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About Our Founder
“While Gawad Kalinga is about many people,
its public face is that of one man: Tony Meloto.”
Mr. Antonio Meloto or “Tito Tony” to the countless Gawad Kalinga volunteers and community partners was born on January 17, 1950 to a low middle class family in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. At a young age, he was already exposed to the squalid living conditions of the poor, his home being near a shoreline squatter community where poverty was already very pronounced, even in the 1950s. He used to walk to the public school, Rizal Elementary School, where he graduated in 1962 as the Class Valedictorian. He continued his education in Negros Occidental High School, where he graduated in 1966 as the Class Salutatorian and Student Council President.
Tito Tony’s natural acumen provided him the opportunity to be an American Field Service scholar, where he was able to repeat his senior high school year in De Anza High School in Richmond, California. But his big break came when he qualified as a Full Academic Scholar of the Ateneo de Manila University. His college years were dedicated to preparing for a career that would take him and his family out of the poverty of his past. After he graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, he was offered a position as the Purchasing Manager of Procter and Gamble. Eventually, he built his own name as an entrepreneur.
But the turning point in Tito Tony’s life came when he was renewed in his faith at 35 years old through Couples for Christ (CFC) in 1985. He began as an active member in Amparo Subdivision in Novaliches and quickly rose in leadership because of his commitment to its mission to have “families in the Holy Spirit renewing the face of the earth.” He was able to bring CFC to his hometown Negros Occidental, where the membership has grown to 40,000 individuals coming from all the towns of the province. He was also instrumental in the setting up of the CFC Family Ministries in 1993, expanding the ministry’s reach to include not just couples but their kids, the youth and single people as well.
It was during his assignment as the Country Coordinator for Australia that he heard the Lord’s call to start the work with the poor through a youth program in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City spearheaded by ANCOP Foundation International. Since it began in 1995, the program has now evolved to become Gawad Kalinga, a movement that builds integrated, holistic and sustainable communities in slum areas.
Gawad Kalinga is now being implemented in almost 1,700 communities in the Philippines and in other developing countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. It has become a concrete manifestation of the healing of relationships in the Philippines, bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, government and the private sector by simply bringing back what is uniquely Filipino – the spirit of ”bayanihan,” the willing sharing of any heavy load for the good of his fellowmen. Driven by a strong commitment to faith, GK is able to bring out the patriotism in every Filipino by making him a hero to his country – a “bayani” that can contribute to “bagong bahay, bagong buhay, bagong bayan (new home, new life, new country).” At a time when most are happy to leave the country to look for greener pastures, Gawad Kalinga sparks hope in the Filipino dream – to restore this great nation and once again be proud to be Filipino. This is Tito Tony’s passion. A true man for others, he has inspired not just his family but hundreds and thousands of volunteers throughout the country and the world to work towards building model communities where the poor can thrive and attain to their fullest potentials so that together, we can all look forward to a better future for our children and the generations to come.
Tito Tony is married to Lyn Dizon-Meloto, and has five children - Anna, Amalia, Jay, Camille and Celine.
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