“The most important skill one should possess is the ability to maintain deep relationship.” This is the very line, Ate Maia delivered so many years ago when I asked some advice from her. Being a young person from a coastal community in Dumangas, Iloilo, living and working in Manila for the first time was very challenging. One of my greatest fears was being intimated by graduates from Ivy League like schools in the Metro. But when I entered Unilab Foundation, that kind of fear vanished because of people like Ate Maia who value integrity and competence as the true measures of organizational success. After 2 hours, and 2 meetings, we became good friends, so near to call as siblings.
In my almost half a decade working with her, our success rate in sealing partnerships and sponsorships is 99.99%, it wasn’t perfect not because we were timid, but because she got sick that time that she missed one meeting. Anyways, she compensated by giving us millions of pesos in return to fund youth teams implement their health projects in the Philippines.
Ate Maia Melencio is the Resource and Partnership Manager of Unilab Foundation and during her stint, she was able to usher all programs of Unilab Foundation into new heights. Like a true Len-Len, she works more than 18 hours a day just to make sure that a community in Basilan and Cotabato would have a water system. She wakes up very early to meet with partners, to convince them that investing in the youth is the best way forward. And despite her own struggles in life, she maintains the sense of composure, which I think very essential in persuading so many people.
As Ate Maia exits the organization today, I am half- sad and half-happy.
Half-happy because I know that a new organization will benefit from her magical skills.
Half-sad because she will leave the organization, less happy, less smart, less healthy, less inclusive, and less oiled.
From the thousands of young people out there, thank you very much for your service, Ate Mai.
MUTYA_PH 