IN the five-and-a-half years I have lived in the Philippines, much of my time was spent telling Filipinos and foreigners alike about the “genius” of the poor I have found in some of the marginalized communities of this country.
It was Gawad Kalinga (GK) founder Tony Meloto who first told me about this brand of genius during an interview for a report I was writing at that time. It was a phrase which aroused my curiosity, and yet no matter how many “intelligent” questions I asked, I could not quite grasp what he meant.
Instead, he politely suggested that I “ditch” the shirt and tie I was wearing that day and discover their genius for myself. So, I exchanged Salcedo Village in the heart of Makati City for GK communities up and down the country and the poor, whom I was once afraid and mistrustful of, became my greatest teachers.
Today, I wonder if some Filipino children (let alone the foreigners!) may grow up feeling even more disconnected from the ground than I ever was. This thought occurred to me when I recently met a parent who told me her 6-year-old child had never touched mud before.
While this shocked me at first, I soon realized it made complete sense. With children spending most of their free time in front of screens or in a mall, the opportunities for them to explore the “real” world beyond the concrete confines of Manila are, indeed, quite limited.
Are we equipping kids with the tools they need to address the challenges we will leave them to deal with?
We may become increasingly reliant upon agriculture, and yet the average age of the Filipino farmer is already 57 and rising. In short, we will have to face some of the great challenges of the future, such as climate change and inequality on the ground; yet, we are raising the future generations to live in the clouds, in front of a screen.
If we are to build a kinder and fairer Philippines, then kids everywhere (not just the poor) need to become aware that the challenges this country faces outside of the malls and gated communities are very real. But instead of having something to fear, they can become involved in finding solutions which will bring great joy and purpose to their lives.
The challenge, of course, is to find a safe and convenient venue for kids of all nationalities—rich and poor—to reconnect to the real Philippines.
Building the ‘wall’
MY second home in the Philippines—the GK Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan—is one such place. There, a few weeks ago, I felt renewed hope and optimism in the form of 20 hyperactive 9-year-old children who had enrolled on a so-called Junior Heroes Camp. They were exposed to hands-on workshops on the environment, agriculture, social business and having the right proactive mind-set.
From the outside looking in, their ability to understand such complex issues may have seemed like a tall order, and yet the response was overwhelming. Having spent just a couple of days planting, animal feeding, making social-enterprise products and learning about simple solutions toward a zero-waste lifestyle, these children were suddenly excitedly talking about how to fight pollution, what kind of social enterprise they can develop and even organic farming.
Watching kids from different backgrounds and countries (France, Malaysia, Japan, Spain and the Philippines) coming together to discuss important issues of their time, it felt like a junior meet up of the United Nations.
“We will build the wall!” one of the children said. While this comment made me momentarily anxious, I soon realized this kid had an eco-brick wall in mind, and its purpose would be to help protect an Aeta community’s crops from forces of nature.
The insights from these children made me realize how much more we should be doing to invest in their true potential. I lifted some lessons from that experience that I think are worth sharing:
Importance of context
WHILE many schools in the city already tackle lessons, such as climate change, poverty, intolerance or plastic pollution, chances are those kids do not fully understand the impact of such problems in their lives. This might be because living in the city puts us and our children in a bubble that separates us from the rest of the world and the problems everybody else is facing.
I say this because I lived in the same bubble for so long, too. Taking kids away from that bubble, even for a day, and letting them experience the natural world creates the perfect setting to open up their minds and learn something new.
At the GK Enchanted Farm, children are able to contextualize the problems presented to them because they see it with their own eyes. These are no longer far-flung textbook problems. Rather, they become real-life issues that they can help to solve through active engagement.
Kids creating answers
I HAVE learned that a great way to get the best output from children is to simply allow them to figure things out on their own. As adults, we feel that our age and experience have granted us free rule to impose our own answers and solutions on our children’s problems, no matter how small or big they may be.
While this is warranted on many occasions, on others, it takes away the opportunity of a child to take full reign of himself and the situation, potentially inhibiting him or her from developing the necessary problem-solving skills needed in the future.
Power in empowerment
AT the end of the day, it all boils down to empowerment. I have traveled all across the Philippines with GK and have seen with my own two eyes the impact created by inspiring and empowering adults to effect positive change. So many other people have reorganized their lives to accommodate the mission of ending poverty and taking up the value of bayanihan.
Imagine if we can do the same for children who still hold a blank canvass for their futures and you see how much more potential there is to change the world for the better.
It is incredibly cliché to say that our children hold our future. But I guess clichés are called clichés because they are often true. We need to start investing in the future of our world through our children. For our children, as well.
MAD Travel Kids camps take place every month at the GK Enchanted Farm, starting on September 16. To find out more, search for “MAD Travel Kids” on Facebook.
Graham is an international speaker and author of the book, The Genius of the Poor. He is also the cofounder of MAD (Make A Difference) Travel (www.madtravel.org), a social-tourism enterprise that creates fun and fulfilling travel experiences in partnership with GK communities. For comments, suggestions and reactions, contact tom@madtravel.org.