Self Enhancement for Life Foundation, Inc.
Established 1992
For the past 25 years, Self Enhancement for Life Foundation, Inc. (SELF) has been rekindling hope and rebuilding lives of individuals and families torn apart by substance and non-substance dependencies.
A leading treatment and rehabilitation program in Asia today, SELF rose from the determination of its Founder Martin Infante who chose to nurture his own sobriety after graduating from a Therapeutic Community (TC) program in 1991. Figuring that his best bet was to help others achieve sobriety, he set up SELF’s first house in a residential community in the southern part of Metro Manila. He was flat broke after his 20-year ordeal with drugs, but with the help of family and friends, coupled with his clear sense of mission and unstoppable passion, the Crespo Facility was up and running on September 14, 1992.
SELF faced many trials in its formative years. People didn’t want a drug rehab in their neignborhood and were determined to evict SELF. In the end, however, what the village officers could not achieve, fate did in one big blow. On June 14, 1996 a fire burned the Crespo Facility to the ground.
SELF moved out of the congested metropolis and leased an old abandoned house in Cavite province. In true TC fashion, the staff and residents got the Rodeo Hills Facility fully operational in two weeks. However, despite continuously improving the property, SELF was made to pay increasingly large amounts of rent in the succeeding years. The situation eventually became untenable and it was time to go.
SELF began the search for a place it could call home. It wound up investing all its savings on the deposit of a one-hectare, hillside property with an unfinished three-story building in Talisay, Batangas. Again with the generosity of friends and sponsors and working with a will, SELF built its first permanent home. On June 17, 2000, the Taal View House compound was inaugurated.
In the years to come, SELF continued to grow and so did the number of buildings in its compound. In 2015, SELF acquired the adjacent property where it plans to erect a Training Building where Martin and his team of dedicated staff plan to provide formal courses on the TC.
Back in 1992, not in his wildest dreams could he imagine what SELF would grow into in 25 years. Indeed, when Martin surrendered to Divine Providence, everything else was provided.
