Before the pandemic started in 2020, we had to run a Permaculture Design Course for grassroots leaders in disasters that we knew we could not help out during the Taal volcano relief. Thus, we gathered together different changemakers working for community kitchens, breast milk donations, mental health support, and humanitarian coordination to rapidly prototype scalable collaborations. Before we could implement them, a global pandemic started. Thankfully, the people of Taal were finally able to go home after alert levels were reduced. This experience made us realize our niche and identify, we are neither informal aid nor formal aid since we aim to go beyond aid by designing for resilience and regeneration. We are also not a humanitarian organization, but we are ecosystem enablers and weavers to support collaborations for impact through awareness-based systems change.
In the last two years, we thought about how we could scale this experience for future disasters in the Philippines, where we face intensifying severe weather and even a rise in sea levels 3x faster than the global average due to climate emergencies.
We are now giving birth to a mapping and matchmaking platform that weaves needs and offers across informal or mutual aid actors to bridge the gap that formal aid providers can’t meet. After repeated cycles and intensifying levels of response needed over the years, we aim to uplift the spirit of Bayanihan in the Philippines that fosters community-led and inclusive efforts to respond to emergencies.
RELEAF.COMMUNITY is an online ecosystem that maps and weaves regenerative initiatives and communities fostering mutual aid collaborations as local safety nets in times of disruption. It is an online Mapping and Matchmaking Platform that weaves needs and offers across mutual (informal) aid actors to bridge the gap that formal aid providers can’t meet. It is a Design Lab for Resilience and Regeneration that brings together formal and informal humanitarian innovators addressing regenerative aid solutions as disaster response and preparedness to scale for systemic impact. It is an Ecosystem for Regeneration in the absence of emergencies, we wish to map regenerative efforts across the country to localize solutions and promote the shift from sustainable to regenerative development. Aside from serving as a database, it is a community of practice for regeneration in the country.
Here’s how you can collaborate:
If you have a NEED for assistance and support for communities affected.
We request that you:
- 1. Are an SEC/CDA- Registered organization (or with business permits for social enterprises) in the Philippines
- 2. Have a landing page for direct donations to be channeled to your registered bank accounts or donation channels
- 3. Have partners or initiatives doing mutual aid on the ground
- 4. Can receive and deliver donations on their behalf
- 5. Can report donations made within the next 3-6 months.
- 6. Help us promote the platform through your network.
- 7. Work with our team of volunteers who will be your support system to help map and match
Green Releaf Initiative, The Philippines
Green Releaf Initiative’s mission is to transform the narrative of disaster risk reduction (DRR) by “designing for resilience and regeneration”. We promote place-based learning by developing learning sites for ecosystem restoration using regenerative design. We weave ecosystems of collaborations across sectors and stakeholders in a landscape to lead together in designing and implementing their regeneration goals. We strive to restore and regenerate natural and human habitats through nature-based solutions that heal our relationship with the earth. We at Green Releaf believe that a whole-systems approach can bring about healing and transformation on the personal, collective, and planetary levels.
Cover picture credit: Jilson Tiu
