Solita Wakefield

SOLITA MAGAHUM-WAKEFIELD
President,
World Bank Group IMF Filipino Staff Association (WBIFA)

Solita Magahum-Wakefield is an enthusiastic advocate for Filipino
nationalism and an ardent fundraiser for the disadvantaged Filipinos
or "kababayans" in the Philippines. As president of the World Bank
Group IMF Filipino Staff Association (WBIFA) for the past three years
and now on her 4th term in office, together with her very involved and
vigilant set of Officers, continues to implement awareness of cultural,
social and economic situations in the Philippines by way of
informational events and local activities, as well as fund raise for
support and assistance to the Philippines, especially for the victims of
calamities.

DC to pursue a career in two
international
institutions serving developing
countries. She started as a
consultant at the World Bank in
1986 and continued at the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
in 1991 as Senior Research Officer
where she carried out research and
data analysis and participated in
economic missions to countries in
Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle
East and Asia.

In her desire to be always
connected to her home country,
Solita became involved with the
World Bank Group IMF Filipino Staff
Association (WBIFA) as Vice
president in 1997-1998 and
Adviser to the then president
Vangie Ganuelas in 1999-2000.
Among WBIFA's objectives are to
keep its membership informed and
educated on the goings on in the
Philippines in terms of the
economic and socio-cultural
conditions.

Aiming to make that difference
specially for her beloved country,
the Philippines, Solita accepted
the position of Overall Chairperson
of Feed the Hungry, Inc. (FtH) in
1999 to do civic and
charitable projects and has been
an active volunteer and Board
member since then. For the last
11 years, she goes home at least
once every year to visit family, as

You need Java to see this applet.

ADs of
Solita Wakefield

Solita grew up in Bacolod City and moved to Manila when she was 11 years old. Her
childhood was a mix of playmates from school, but mostly with poor children who lived in their
family's land for free. From a very early age, the less fortunate and underprivileged have
curved a niche in Solita's heart. Driven to reach out to them, while in Maryknoll College, Solita
together with her good friend, Maricel Marino, made weekly visits to White Cross, an
orphanage in Mandaluyong run by nuns. There they got involved by donating goodies to the
children, taking 8-10 kids out to visit museums and parks, and prepared meals for them at
home on Sundays. Both shared a dream of one day establishing an orphanage of their own.
After graduating from her M.A. in Economics in New York, she did not choose to work in the
private sector but, inspired to make a difference in the world, opted to move to Washington

well as, implement FtH projects in different provinces of the country. All travel and incidental expenses are
shouldered personally by each FtH volunteer or officer. The projects are diverse in both scope and range, and all
are directed at bringing assistance to the poor. She has travelled to the Bicol region, Camarines Sur and Leyte for
calamity assistance, to many depressed areas in MetroManila to implement feeding programs and gift giving
projects including to the Mangyan tribes in the mountains of Mindoro. She participated along with FtH volunteers in
distributing goods and basic needs to orphanages in MetroManila, Bacolod City, the Bicol region and other
provinces, and also to homes for the aged and the disabled. Solita has participated in medical missions in
Paranaque, Caloocan, Naga and Sorsogon, including a visit to the leper colony in Novaliches. Her volunteer work
continues every year.

Highlights of her FtH experiences are solo implementations in the company of one or more Commission on Filipinos
Abroad (CFO) staff, an FtH partner in the Philippines; in 2006, a catastrophic mud landslide in Leyte buried the
town of Guinsaugon, and nearly 2000 people perished including an elementary school full of children. She took an
early morning flight from Manila to Leyte, a 4-hour truck ride to a remote town where there are no more schools
standing and children are taught inside tents. Books, raincoats and rain boots were distributed to the children
then a somber visit to Ground Zero, what town people call the town of Guinsaugon, now all buried in mud; an
arduous solo trip to Samar for a dental mission up in the mountains that took a 1 1/2-hour plane trip, a 4-hour
public bus trip and a half an hour bumpy tricycle ride to reach; in 2007, a solo flight to Bicol coordinating with local
authorities and the CFO staff, distributed basic needs of food and toiletries to the hundreds of homeless families
displaced by the Mayon Volcano eruption and the continuing outflow of lava that destroyed homes and farms; she
took a 15-kilometer drive up a mountain in Bacolod where 40 elderly, abandoned by their children, are cared for by
nuns whose only transportation to the city when an emergency happens is one “carabao” (water buffalo).
Medicines, diapers and food were distributed.

What she finds most heart rending, a feeling that is etched in her heart and the driving force of her unconditional
dedication to help the poor and make a difference – is the memory of holding in her arms, a one-year old severely
malnourished child in Camarines Sur, hardly 15 lbs in weight, who can hardly open its eyes and too weak to speak
or move. A sight that cries out for immediate help.

The most essential and significant principle that brings comfort to her is the reassurance that thru FtH and the
support of WBIFA Officers and its members, Filipinos here at the Washington Metropolitan can reach out to their
disadvantaged and deprived “kababayans” to share their blessings and be able to give hope and renewed faith to
them, who have lost it.

One can never put a price on the grateful smile of a 90-year old woman happy to receive a piece of perfumed
soap, a dress, a towel, a shampoo; the excitement in the face of a 4-year old boy in tattered clothes receiving a
toy, a book, a pencil; the cheers of half naked children of a Mangyan tribe seeing candies and cookies in big
bundles, and milk for the next four months; a tear of appreciation from a woman on death row receiving goodies
and a visit from someone who still cares. All the hard work, the fundraising efforts, the countless hours after work
and family life, makes it all worth it.

On her last visit to the Philippines in January 2010, she went to Iloilo and visited 3 homes built by FtH thru Habitat
for Humanity and listened to the horror stories of the recipient families who lost their homes during one of the
worst floods in Iloilo in decades- typhoon Frank submerged 80% of Iloilo City and devastated 42 towns and
48,836 families and a total over half a million families in the whole province. She also visited FtH grade school
scholars in Baluarte Elementary School supported by her own close friends and the Iloilo City High School to check
on the computers donated to FTH which she has procured from the IMF. While in Manila, she joined FtH volunteers
for gift-giving implementations in a public elementary school in Marikina and indigent families from the Sierra Madre
mountains who were victims of Typhoon Ondoy that hit Manila in 2009 in one of the worst floods in the city and
surrounding areas.

Always actively involved in staff events in the World Bank and IMF, particularly those benefiting Filipino and Filipino-
American staff, Solita acquiesced and accepted the nomination for President of the World Bank Group-IMF Filipino
Association (WBIFA). She was elected to the position in 2006 and has held the position along with a majority of
the Officers for four terms, including the current year. Working with the dedicated and committed set of Officers,
WBIFA organized economic forums and informational seminars from visiting Cabinet members, government
authorities and NGOs as speakers. During her term, the Association implemented community reach out projects
and several fund-raising campaigns for calamity assistance in the Philippines. The most recent fundraising effort
was the Typhoon Ondoy Relief Campaign in October 2009 that collected the biggest funds raised in the history of
WBIFA in the total amount of $60,500 which included matching funds from the World Bank and the IMF. WBIFA has
contributed to a microfinance project of the Ayala Foundation thru former Ambassador Albert del Rosario and the
GILAS project (Gearing-up for Internet Access to Students). On one of her visits to the Philippines, Solita visited
the public high school in Mandaluyong along with two Ayala Foundation staff to see the computers that now have
Internet access financed by WBIFA. WBIFA also donated to the renovation of a school in Naga damaged by
Typhoon Reming, built a school in conjunction with the Philippine Association of Metropolitan Washington
Engineers (PAMWE) in Carles, Iloilo destroyed by Typhoon Frank, financed two Feed the Hungry 6-month feeding
programs, and donated to the medical mission to the Philippines of St. Charles Borromeo parish in Arlington.   The
WBIFA members and Officers participate in the yearly IMF and World Bank Cultural Showcase. Other activities
include book signing of Filipino authors, seminars of interest to the membership (i.e., Stock Exchange and
Investment in the Philippines, Empowerment for Women and Philanthropy, Open Forums on Economic Environment
in the Philippines).

Relentless in her efforts to help newcomers to the DC area who have come to better the future prospects of their
families but are treading unfamiliar soil, Solita thru WBIFA joined forces with the Philippine Embassy to continue
the yearly Winter Clothes Drive for Filipino Migrant Teachers which has started two years previously. This effort
has made the newly arrived teachers feel welcome by the community. She spearheaded the procurement of 100
computers from the IMF to donate to FtH and are now being used in public schools in Iloilo and other provinces.
Also, through her efforts, 20,000 textbooks from the World Bank were shipped to the Philippines in coordination
with Makati Rotary Club.

On her 4th term in office at WBIFA, together with her devoted and tireless team of Officers, Solita aims to leave a
legacy of continuous and enthusiastic involvement of the Association and its members to further cultivate interest
and concern of to their home country. This year, she plans to revive the WBIFA website, implement a program that
will involve the youth to appreciate Philippine history, its beauty and culture and a language program in
conjunction with the Philippine Embassy to teach conversational Pilipino to young Filipino kids who are mostly born
in the U.S. and other cultural activities. These projects will be aimed at awakening the Filipino-American youth of
the cultural treasures that abound in their Filipino heritage and roots.

Outside of her activities with WBIFA and FtH, Solita has volunteered with K.E.E.N. (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now) an
organization located in Maryland that recruits volunteers on weekends to play and exercise with mentally
disadvantaged children, while giving their parents some hours of rest and respite. She is also a volunteer for
INVOLVE, an IMF volunteer group in Metropolitan DC.

Born in Molo, Iloilo City, Solita, fondly called by family and close friends "Tata" (Ilonggo for "little girl") is the
daughter of Ignacio Magahum and Ramona Santiago. She is the proud grand daughter of Angel M. Magahum Sr.
who is recognized in Philippine history as the "Colossus of Visayan Literature", a historian, a musical composer of
zarzuelas in his time and the author of the first Hiligaynon novel "Benjamin". She graduated A.B. in Economics at
Maryknoll College, and was   awarded a scholarship at Ateneo de Manila University for M.A. in Economics. Solita
proceeded to New York to complete her M.A. in Economics at Long Island University and took courses in
Quantitative Analysis in New York University, MBA courses at George Washington University and PhD courses at
the George Mason University in Fiscal Policy. She is a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon (Economics Honor
Society, New York chapter).

2010 WBIFA
Officers

Friends
from
Feed The Hungry
Inc.

Henry Monterey
Balagtas and
Family