Manila, Philippines
Brief Reflections:
This is my first time in the Philippines and in Asia in general. Living and working here has been such an amazing experience and is something that I wouldn’t change for the world. I am so appreciative of the opportunity to immerse myself in a new country and culture in a natural everyday sense. The work we have done and the new things we have experienced (inside and outside the office) are things that will stay with me forever. I will definitely be returning to the Philippines at some point, and I hope it's very soon. :) -Eloise
This being my first time living outside Canada for an extended period of time, I learned about the joys of getting to learn about others’ cultures. Learning about Filipino food, history, languages, and culture, more generally, was always interesting and fun for me. However, seeing the joy when others would share pieces of their identity with me, whether introducing their favourite food to me or touring us around their old university campus, made this experience of living in the Philippines this summer more meaningful and memorable. -Brandon
Summer Recap:
Hi everyone! As we head back to Canada from our internship later this week, we wanted to share some of our experience being in the Philippines these past 10 weeks! We have been working with Parabukas, a women-led, Asia-based international consultancy focused on laws and policies related to climate change, the environment, and sustainable development. Parabukas works closely with local government units and many communities across the Philippines!
Our time with Parabukas (PB) has given us a deeper understanding of development work and legal advocacy in the Philippines. We got to listen to seminars on a variety of topics by the PB team and close contacts (PB fellows) and were given opportunities to work on a variety of projects under some incredibly talented researchers and lawyers! We've learned more than we could have ever imagined about environmental justice and advocacy from the kindest and most passionate people we've had the privilege to meet
Our work with Parabukas has been, at times, hectic, but extremely rewarding! Throughout our internship, we each created individual 'think pieces' in which we dove into an environmental issue plaguing the Philippines. As long as it related to the type of work Parabukas does, we did not have any restrictions regarding our topics and theses! This allowed us to research something that we are truly interested in and passionate about while basing it in the context of the Philippines' environment, an area we both knew very little about before our travels.
Eloise’s think piece takes a look at the issue of monocropping in Palawan. It suggests that the provincial government providing subsidies and education on Indigenous cropping techniques to small farmers may prove helpful in mitigating the growth of monocropping and improving the agricultural economy in the province.
Brandon’s think piece looks at factory farming in the context of the Philippines and how this affects the environment and human health. It also suggests recommendations for the government to promote more sustainable methods of animal agriculture.
All of the Parabukas’ interns think pieces will be uploaded onto the Parabukas blog on their website and are available to read very soon!
We had intern outputs and projects which we worked on as a team alongside the local interns at Parabukas. We organized and held an event over Zoom about our team chosen project: Circular Economy of the Fashion Industry. We had two expert speakers, Attorney Mika and Lester, present and had a large and very engaged audience who came to learn and ask questions. Our communications posts followed a similar theme, discussing the circular economy of different sectors like plastics, technology, and fashion.
We also took on support work for existing Parabukas projects. Eloise took on the creation of a proposal for Health Care Without Harm and Thailand’s Ministry of Health to help set up five medical excellency centers which will help to combat the health effects of climate change. These medical excellency centers will provide care for the more vulnerable and poor populations in Thailand and operate under a Bio-Circular-Green Economy. Brandon helped ease the workload on project ClimEQ and learned about policy coherence and green growth, and helped with the creation of the UN Environment Programme's Pacific Islands Brief!
We both supported Project SIGND, which seeks to develop new signs for concepts related to climate change in Filipino Sign Language. Parabukas is also preparing three policy briefs for the government regarding current policies directed at the Philippines’ deaf community. Eloise is doing work on policy brief three, which looks into the current methods of data collection for the deaf community.
We had a 10-day intern exchange with the Environmental Legal Assistance Centre (ELAC) in one of the most beautiful islands in the world, Palawan! ELAC is an environmental NGO that defends communities’ fundamental rights to a healthful and balanced ecology through developmental legal assistance, community-based resource management and advocacy. We had a life-changing experience meeting with women environmental defenders in Narra, Palawan, and created promotional materials to raise awareness of an illegally-constructed seawall causing environmental issues. We also went on some amazing adventures with Parabukas' and ELAC's Social Media Legend, Sophia!
We were able to see the power of building strong community relationships. Whether it was with PB fellows Atty. Mika and Atty. Grip who graciously helped us with our Intern-Led Event, with ELAC’s women environmental defenders who allowed us into their homes to interview them for our assignment (us being two foreigners who they had never met), or with government agencies that PB maintains healthy relationships with, we saw that relationship building and maintaining is a key element of advocacy. We were grateful to experience firsthand how important thoughtful communication and attention to maintaining strong relationships is.