Everyone familiar with OISCA-International knows that the movement in the Philippines has had a long and very productive history, involving a variety of successful activities. In 1962, (while then named the "International Organization for Cultivating Universal Human Spirit") an investigative team was dispatched to the Philippines, as well as to India and Pakistan, to research ways to effectively promote development. And in 1963, OISCA Japan received its first group of overseas trainees from the Philippines. Similarly, the Children's Forest Program, the widely known experiential environmental education program presently featured by the OISCA movement, was started in 1991 as a pilot project involving seventeen Philippine schools.

In view of such a record of widespread contributions, it may not be a surprise that the Heads of the Republic have repeatedly expressed deep appreciation for OISCA. In 1991, President Corazon C. Aquino awarded OISCA a special presidential citation. And on August 14, 2000, history repeated itself. This time, President Joseph Ejercito Estrada awarded a Presidential Citation to OISCA and its topmost leader, President Yoshiko Y. Nakano, at Malacanang Palace, Manila. The Citation elaborated the grounds for OISCA's reception of this special award as follows:

    For their pioneering efforts in human resource development, community development training, protection of the environment, and other projects, initiating many of them in the Philippines and leading them to successful outcomes that have inspired replication in various Asian and other countries;
For their numerous successful projects in the Philippines, including the sericulture program in Negros Occidental and the children's forest program in many parts of the Philippines;
For their tireless efforts to upgrade the capabilities of Filipinos, with appropriate training program in basic industries leading to increased agricultural productivity, improved environmental protection, and enhanced livelihood, among other benefits;
For their continued support in improving the capabilities of various local communities through self-reliance and self-help efforts;
For their unwavering commitment to assist Filipinos in their efforts to alleviate poverty, in line with the objectives, and priority goals of the Estrada Administration, and
For serving as a concrete link in forging stronger ties of understanding and friendship between the peoples of the Philippines and Japan.

OISCA is honored by such recognition and realizes that there is still much work to be done in the Philippines, as well as in other countries. Step by step, we of OISCA are dedicated to working together to improve the world around us.