#enchanted farm

[chaddiction]

Medyo napalayo lakad natin today. Haha. 2 hours balikan. More greens na siya ngayon since 2017 na pumunta ako dito. It's nice to see the GK community again. Will be back here for sure. A different surrounding for a breather.

📍GK Encanted Farm

[chaddiction]

See the hidden wellness of our barangay, Encanto, in Angat, Bulacan! Volunteer now!

[nextdaybetter]

Made in the Philippines: Social Enterprise Incubator Supports Products Made By Filipinos, For Filipinos

When we began working on ChooseSocial.PH, we wanted to highlight the great work and community impact of social enterprises in the Philippines. But really, which organizations inspired us to embark on this journey? And why Philippines? Gelaine and I are located in Toronto and Gelaine, who was born in the Philippines, hasn’t always felt like an insider in the Filipino community. For myself, I’m not even Filipino. I was born and raised in Québec speaking French as my first language, and then moved to Toronto five years ago. What was so special about social enterprises in the Philippines that appealed to us so much?

Gelaine and I met as volunteers for the non-profit student organization called AIESEC. While volunteering, we both discovered the alluring and ambitious world of social enterprises – the idea that businesses and business skills could be forces for social good. We always knew our passions lay with social enterprises, but how this applied to the Philippines didn’t occur to us. That is, until we discovered the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm, an incubator of social enterprises and a Filipino success that inspires many across the world. This immediately caught our eye and thus began our budding passion for Filipino social enterprises.

The Enchanted Farm was created by Gawad Kalinga, a Filipino non-profit with the mission of ending poverty for 5 million Filipino families by 2024. The Enchanted Farm itself was founded as a center of innovation in order to foster a new generation of innovative social enterprises in the Philippines. The goal is an ambitious one – to create new Filipino brands that will manufacture Filipino products for the Filipino market. Which is needed in a country where a lot of products, including food products (chocolate, dairy & coffee) that could be farmed locally, are imported.

Because the Enchanted Farm itself is on farmland, many of those products are food products. And because they are all social enterprises, they facilitate local capacity building by providing employment, job training and education to beneficiaries of Gawad Kalinga (typically low-income) communities, while also reinvesting their profits into social programs to help alleviate poverty. By hosting more than 20 social enterprises under the same roof, this hub of social entrepreneurship fosters collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing amongst the social enterprises, while providing a unique marketplace (Enchanted Farm Cafe) to showcase their work. The innovation coming out of this high concentration of social enterprises has led many to call the Enchanted Farm the “Silicon Valey of social enterprises”.

Since I am myself an IT Professional with experience consulting for various companies big and small, I love learning about new startups and the development of new technologies, I can also witness and understand how new companies can benefit from an environment of collaboration and growth similar to the Silicon Valley. At the Enchanted Farm, entrepreneurs can constantly network and share their learnings and expertise. Because of this unique and inspiring environment, the Enchanted Farm attracts people from all walks of life – whether they want to found a social enterprise, volunteer, or are working professionals who wish to pivot from a career in corporate to the social enterprise or social impact world.

For example, Xilca Alvarez left her work as a lawyer to work at the Enchanted Farm and eventually to join Bayani Brew, a social enterprise that creates drinks from local & indigenous ingredients cultivated at the Enchanted Farm. Because of the Farm’s reputation as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, it now attracts lots of funding opportunities from other organizations that can help to scale those social enterprises. For me, that was a personal realization. The Enchanted Farm taught me that the Silicon Valley model of IT innovation could be applied to the world of social good and impact, and how my two passions for technology and social enterprises could intersect. I decided then that I wanted to share this unique Filipino social enterprise scene with the world.

Xilca Alvarez, Ron Dizon, and Shanon Khadka from Bayani Brew

  We often hear through NextDayBetter of the successes and accomplishments of Filipino diaspora communities across the world. These successes not only inspire the Filipino diaspora but everyone in the community, both Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike. The Enchanted Farm also attracts this kind of attention. The difference is, however, they are located in the Philippines and people actually travel large distances to learn from this unique place. For example, many European students volunteer at the Farm for months at a time and many business visitors come to learn from the farm’s operation for a few days. This is how people at the Enchanted Farm have begun to refer to themselves as the “’Disneyland’ for social tourism”.

While many people come to learn, Fabien Courteille from France, decided to stay after volunteering and launched his own social enterprise at the Farm. The social enterprise is called Plush and Play, and sells children’s toys. Regardless of their origin, the farm shows that people from across the world can come in, take part and be integrated into the community, and work alongside Filipinos to help resolve one of the Philippine’s major social problems: poverty. For a non-Filipino like me, I often see the pitfalls of foreigners going to another country to bring their own solutions to what they consider are the most important problem. What I love about the Enchanted Farm is that it’s a concept entirely created for the Philippines, by Filipinos and adapted to the local Filipino needs and realities, while they still are welcoming help from everyone. Knowing that different cultures can come together to innovate and work towards a single social goal in the Philippines, knowing that I could be one of those persons without feeling out of place, what else could be more inspiring?

Our mission at ChooseSocial.PH is to bring social enterprises into the mainstream and the Enchanted Farm is great at helping us with this goal. For anyone visiting the Philippines and staying around Manila, the Enchanted Farm is a must-see. Located in Angat, Bulacan, it is a few hours drive from Manila. Not only is it possible to visit it, but they actually have various visitor packages to help you learn about the social enterprises and offer accommodations. Gelaine and I still haven’t had the chance to visit the Enchanted Farm or any of the social enterprises we feature on ChooseSocial.PH. However, this is something we want to remedy as we plan to travel to the Philippines in December this year. In case we needed any more signs of the importance of social enterprises into our lives, we even realized that Gelaine’s birthplace in Bulacan is less than one hour out from the Enchanted Farm. Really, there’s no good reason for us to miss this amazing place!

Perhaps this won’t be possible for you to visit and learn from the Enchanted Farm in the immediate future. So, what can you do? Learn and apply the principles of collaboration and innovation from the Enchanted Farm and see if there is another group in your city you can join which may help you build the next big thing!

Not sure where to start? Look at your local NextDayBetter chapter! – Jérôme Gagnon-Voyer

  Photo Credits: Destination Changemakers

About NextDayBetter | NextDayBetter is a speaker and food series for diaspora communities. Its global events in nine cities celebrate the stories of changemakers from untapped global migrant communities and call them to action. It believes that diasporas like the Filipino Asian Pacific Islander global communities are hubs and inspirations for world changing ideas. Learn more at nextdaybetter.com.

Connect with the NextDayBetter global community:

Website: www.nextdaybetter.com

Facebook: facebook.com/nextdaybetter

Twitter: @NextDayBetter

Instagram: NextDayBetter

Made in the Philippines: Social Enterprise Incubator Supports Products Made By Filipinos, For Filipinos was originally published on NextDayBetter

[nextdaybetter]

Food, start-ups, and social enterprise: The story of a Filipino outsider

I’m not your definition of a Filipina role model. I understand but don’t speak Tagalog. I was born in Philippines but couldn’t tell you much about life in the country. I grew up eating ‘adobo,” palabok,’ and ‘pancit,’ but only recently learned the difference between ‘lechon’ and ‘lechon kawali.’ I’ve lived most of my life in Canada where I was raised to believe that Philippine-made meant cheap, and “opportunity” was always paired with “abroad”.

So, it must be a surprise that here I am – co-founder of ChooseSocial.PH, an organization that aims to connect and educate people about social enterprises in the Philippines and the work of Filipino social entrepreneurs. It’s a surprise but an honour to be part of an organization that proudly showcases the work, impact, and innovations of Filipinos and what they are doing to make their communities even better.

For the many of you who don’t know, a social enterprise is a business that primarily exists in order to address a social or environmental cause. You might have immediately thought about Toms Shoes or even Ten Thousand Villages, some of the better-known social enterprises. But what about Kalibrr (named one of five filipino tech startups to watch in the Wall Street Journal)? Hapinoy (a social enterprise modernizing the traditional sari-sari store model to help female entrepreneurs)? Or The Enchanted Farm Café (a café in Quezon City selling gourmet and artisan foods made from 100% Philippine ingredients and sourced from local farms)? These are exactly the stories that we want to tell.

The concept for ChooseSocial.PH slowly began to form after Jérôme and I travelled to Philippines in December 2013. This was my first time back since moving to Canada when I was three years old. During our short two-week trip, Jérôme and I both fell in love with the country. I loved the warm heat on my skin even when it was pitch black outside and the heaviness that was always present in the air. I loved the open hospitality of strangers on the street who would invite Jérôme over for a beer, and seeing my father so proud to show us the home where we grew up in Bulacan. Despite all the things to love, however, you would have to be completely daft to be oblivious to the extreme poverty, inequality, and complex social and environmental issues prevalent within the country.

When we returned to Toronto, we heard of an event through Kapisanan, a Toronto-based Filipino arts and culture organization where Jérôme had been taking Tagalog classes back in 2013. The event was marketed with the intriguing headline “Batman, Foodies, Fashion + CrisisMaps” and we decided to attend. This was our introduction to the world of NextDayBetter and it was my first time being surrounded by so many people like me – second generation Filipinos who grew up in Canada. They were hugely idealistic, and I discovered a community of people who not only looked like me, but also shared my ambitions to create positive and impactful change in the world.

At the first NextDayBetter event in Toronto, I discovered a community of ambitious Filipino youth (and also plenty of delicious Filipino food).

We were inspired. Jérôme, with his insatiable appetite for knowledge, intensively began to research the Philippines. He occupied himself with learning about the tech and startup scene, social issues, and economy. He came across Gawad Kalinga, an extremely impressive Filipino organization founded by Tony Meloto committed to eradicating poverty in the Philippines. One of the key ways they aim to do this is through their Enchanted Farm, an incubator for Filipino social enterprises. From there, we were introduced to organizations such as GoldenducK, Gourmet Keso, Human Heart Nature, Rags2Riches, and engageSPARK. The range in size, mission, and product offerings was astounding, and the creativity with which many of these organizations tackle the country’s most complex social issues completely floored and humbled us.

Something we noticed early in our research was though many social enterprises were doing amazing work, learning about it was a huge challenge. Many of these organizations didn’t have websites or were impossible to find, and when we did find them, the messages were so convoluted that it was next to impossible to understand what they did. That’s where the idea for ChooseSocial.PH was truly born. We essentially created what we wanted for ourselves –  a go-to resource to learn about social enterprises in the Philippines that was visually appealing, up to date, and in touch with the younger generation of Filipinos.

We officially launched our website in November 2014 and have 73 organizations in our directory to date, with over 150 organizations waiting to be researched and added. We continue to make improvements to our site, and are focused on strengthening our relationships with social entrepreneurs and partner organizations. When I think of it, the two of us are a funny group – me, a Filipina still learning Tagalog; and Jérôme, a Québecois living in Toronto who learned English as a second language and knows more about the Philippines than I do. We are both members of our respective diaspora communities in our unique ways.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts. I doubt whether the two of us are really knowledgeable or qualified to be involved in this type of work. I get anxious when I think about the future and what ChooseSocial.PH will become, if it will become anything. I get frustrated when my friends and own family don’t understand or show interest in what we’re doing. I wonder, more often than not, if I know what I’m doing and if those entrepreneurs we spend so much time researching and learning about ever wonder the same things.

Despite the doubts, I draw my inspiration from stories. Stories of the people on our website, and of the Filipinos I heard speak the first time I attended an event with NextDayBetter. I am moved by experiences of Filipinos who choose to stay in the Philippines rather than go abroad because they want to fight for their communities, and stories of Filipinos who left and returned because they believed they could make it better. I am driven by stories of people like my partner Jérôme and my sister who works with Filipino youth, like the amazing team of NextDayBetter, like the people who email us on a weekly basis wanting to learn more about social enterprises and how they can contribute – people who may be far from where they came from but wear their Filipino-ness close to their hearts. I strive for the day we can finally shed off the description of Filipinos as “resilient people” and replace it instead with words like; “innovative”, “empathetic”, “passionate”, “intelligent”, and “entrepreneurial “.

These are the things that drive me and put my doubts to rest, and though I am still discovering what it means to be Filipina, I know I am not alone and there are people like me and different from me who are trying to achieve the same goals. I am so humbled and excited to be able to continue to share the stories of such amazing organizations and people with you.

  —

Gelaine Santiago: Gelaine, a Filipino-Canadian, is co-founder of ChooseSocial.PH – the go-to resource to learn about the social enterprise scene in the Philippines. She works as an HR professional in Toronto during the day and loves to talk about all things social enterprises, women’s and minority rights, entrepreneurship, tech, start-ups, and food (of course).

Food, start-ups, and social enterprise: The story of a Filipino outsider was originally published on NextDayBetter

[storiesinaquad]

Let's get rich and build a house on a mountain* making everybody look like ants from way up there, you and I, you and I.

*or a farm

[photajenic-blog]

GK Enchanted Farm 

[gkmessengersofhope-blog]

A Convergence of Love

By Bener Mendoza

  Last September 9, the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm at Angat, Bulacan became a hive of activity. High-profile individuals from the government and private sector flocked to different stalls and sampled agricultural products. Stall owners and entrepreneurs enthusiastically conversed with onlookers and marketed their merchandise. GK volunteers pleasantly assisted attendees and helped out with logistics. The titos and titas of the Farm flashed their brightest smiles as served food during lunch. These were the sights on display during the GK Enchanted Farm Countryside Fair, an event born out of a partnership between GK and the Department of Agrarian Reform.

  Amidst the buzz of activities, demonstrations and merriment, the underlying theme of the event was not lost among the attendees. As shared by tito Tony Meloto and DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, the partnership and Fair aims to improve the lives of 3,500 farmers in Bulacan through the concerted efforts of different sectors, from the government, corporate sector, academe,  private entrepreneurs, and the farmers themselves.

  Every interaction became meaningful and with a purpose, from buying ‘malunggay’ noodles to chatting among stall owners and volunteers.  The gathering became an avenue of each one to share their stories and views in an interaction of kindred spirits.

  I encountered Kuya Mario Damolo who manned the Enchanted Farm Burger stall and prepared the patties with his son. Kuya Mario narrated how he and his family once lived in a bahay kubo on a lot owned by a private individual, and how they were forced to live beside a bridge when the lot owner reclaimed the lot. When they first heard of GK, they were skeptical as it seemed impossible for housing to be granted to them without cost. Eventually, they grasped the essence of the movement which is beyond just building houses, but building lives and relationships, as a community.

  Kuya Mario personified those whose lives have been touched by GK, engaged and driven by his experiences to help others improve their lives. He has been serving GK for three years and is looking to render more service to other beneficiaries.

  Across Kuya Mario’s stall is Human Nature’s booth which displayed its array of organic cosmetics and healthcare products sourced from various farmers in the country. Ms. Moise, Sales Team Head of Human Nature, was lively in selling their products and making it known that it was through partnership with purposeful people such as Kuya Mario that made the business possible and sustainable.

  Social entrepreneurship is a trending model of creating social impact nowadays, but it is not without hitches and obstacles. That is why the story shared by Ms. Moise on Human Nature inspires, on how the business grew from just 10 hired people three years ago to around 150 now, employed in the various operations. More and more lives of people wanting for a better life are being touched, and more and more wealth is being created to produce more opportunities in turn. She has  been in the business for three and a half years now, continuing to promote healthy living while helping others through the brand.

  The vision and mission of Human Nature resonates with the aspirations of many of the attendees of the event. Against the backdrop of the Countryside Fair, its story expresses what social entrepreneurship can contribute to the overall aim of the event.

  Right behind Human Nature’s booth is the Farm’s function hall, holding the formal program of the event. The podium hosted the presence and speeches of a couple of well-known government figures, including the Bulacan Governor Alvarado and DAR Secretary de los Reyes, as well as GK’s very own Tito Tony Meloto.

  As government leaders and NGO stalwarts, they related what the Countryside Fair and the GK-DAR is and what it means from their wide-ranging perspective. On how it will gather the expertise, resources and technology of the private sector to enable farmers to increase their productivity. On how the Enchanted Farm will enable farmers to produce products higher up the value chain with the help of entrepreneurs. On how brands will be created and businesses managed through knowledge from the academe.

  From the elevated podium, the event represents the commitment and responsibility of stakeholders to making the vision of the partnership a reality. Tito Tony, Secretary de los Reyes and Governor Alvarado already bore witness to the partnership’s potential, seeing the building of Hyundai’s Green Innovation Center in the Farm, Shell Corporation providing the road system, among others. The leaders’ years of experience and know-how serve to temper the multitude of converging efforts.

  As the day wound down to a close, as the stalls and booths cleared, the roads cleared of cars, what was left were titos and titas smiling, volunteers tired but fulfilled on a job well done, and attendees and entrepreneurs pleased with what has transpired. Everyone who was present bore witness to a forging of a true partnership towards a great cause, and this partnership was formed out of understanding where each stakeholder was coming from acknowledging each unique story, and sharing in each one’s convictions and vision. That is the essence of true partnership, a convergence, all grounded in love for country and for the Filipino people, all grounded in the universal right of everyone to life and equality.

  As one print during the Fair put it – capturing the spirit of it all – “less for self, more for others, enough for all.”

[kapemaria-blog]

Coffee lessons at The Farm (Taken with Instagram)