Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm

I made a visit to the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm recently. For those not yet familiar with Gawad Kalinga, it's a non-government organization whose goal (among others) is to sustainably end poverty for 5 million families by 2024, and they're doing it through social enterprise. I had the opportunity to sit down for five minutes with Mr Tony Meloto, the founder of Gawad Kalinga, and he made a believer out of me. The man is overflowing with inspiration, and if many Filipinos would adopt the same mindset as he has, we would have a lot less problems in this world.

I didn't have much time to stay in one place within the farm as I was on assignment, but I managed to sneak in a few randoms that caught my fancy.




Cocoa pods. Apparently, the Philippines is a pretty ideal climate for growing cocoa, yet we import most of our chocolate.

Seedlings from the plant clinic at the farm. They produce really potent fertilizer here, and use it to care for their plants. At Php50 per kilo, it's not a bad price either.

This lady caught my eye while she was cleaning the area. Maybe it was the vigour with which she went about her duties, or maybe it was the sparkling wood floor. Either way, I thought it made for an interesting shot.

In other news, the documentary I've been working on for the GMA Cinetotoo International Documentary Film Festival, Mananayaw, has finally entered production phase. Pre-prod's just about finished, and now comes the fun. More to come.

UNICEF

A UNICEF tent standing in the plaza. Five months after, and the world is still helping. Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines.

Lighting Up Samar

Half-seated and half-crouched I rode, inside a van making the four-hour journey to Borongan, Samar; a city on the eastern coast of the Philippines. We were about to drive onto the San Juanico Bridge, longest in the Philippines and in itself an impressive sight. I looked out the window. The glistening blue-green hue of the clear Pacific waters greeted me like a passer-by waving to a float on a parade. The familiar scent of the salty sea-breeze made its way through my being and gave me that sense of home-away-from-home. Random little islands littered the landscape like green polka dots on a blue dress, isolated groves of trees with their own mini beaches, sandwiched in the strait between two larger islands.

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One Million Lights - Rizal

Sharing a couple of portraits I made from the recent distribution of One Million Lights in Montalban, Rizal. While hearing about their cause is heartwarming in itself, it is a totally different experience just being there, while they do their work. The excitement and buzz that ensued among the crowd as we stepped out of the vans, the small outbursts of joy as the villagers tightly clutched their precious lanterns, the instant lightening of gait as they walked around the gymnasium, all were sights best had up close and personal.

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