Philippines: a place to regain strength, faith and reaffirm our committments

Map of the trip (click to enlarge)

After few days of having left the Philippines, opposite feelings begun to show up. On the one hand we both were excited to reach China and its ancient traditions which combined with increasing development, would opened us the doors to a very valuable experience at this stage of the journey, but more importantly, the people we were about to know, rediscover and share with. And on the other hand, the nostalgia of saying goodbye to the Philippines (country and people who gave us so much), certainly filled our hearts with a feeling of sadness, but mostly thankfulness.
In the Philippines we recover strength; we filled our bags with experiences, colors and human relations, but mostly got back hope thanks to the people who add up their share to make another world possible. People from PBAZ, Education for Life Foundation and Stairway Foundation ...Thanks!
During our stay in this country, we were working with different organizations, that is why for this entry we decided to let the images (product of our work) speak for us.

PBAZ and Education for Life Foundation

Since our arrival, people from ELF received us warmly, offering fruits and traditional Filipino food, but above all, opening the door to an indigenous community of Aetas people, where we stayed for a week taking pictures and sharing with them. In an effort to not only get from the community, we offer them our characteristics and professional skills in order to do something in return for the favor they were doing. They asked and we did the best we could to please them. Juan Carlos took some pictures of endemic plants, and on the understanding that this information was confidential, all the pictures were deleted after they was delivered, what makes impossible to share with you all that part of his work. However, what I had to do for them is sure possible to share and consists simply of a couple of brochures: one on the Lakas Commmunity and another one about the political campaign of "Tubag" a member of this community who began his career in politics.

Brochure for PBAZ

Brochure for "Tubag"

Stairway Foundation Inc.

Three fantastic weeks working in a privileged setting on the shores of the sea with the great Stairway Family, inspired us to leave these behind:

In these slide shows Juan Carlos captured the spirit of "I care", a camp where children from the International Schools of Manila and Cairo, Egypt, interact with children of Stairway. Explained in better words, a description by a pretty Danish voluntary: Anna Heckscher (http://bit.ly/I-care-Anna-Heckscher)

During our stay in Stairway Foundation, I had the opportunity to develop and implement a new system for the foundation solid waste management. The result was quite satisfactory for both sides, but especially for me, for to be in close contact with Stairway staff and children I learned a lot and my heart got filled with all the smiles and stories that were shared, and that by the end of the experience, become memories and inspiration to continue making small efforts for a better world. (www.bit.ly/aFYAN6)

Stairway Kids working in a creative recylcing workshop