I am an architect and urban planner working towards providing shelter, food security and livelihood projects for communities in the Philippines.

Having been involved in housing from luxury housing to socialised / low-cost housing for a number of years, I realised that to provide shelter without food security and livelihood is a band-aid solution at best. For impoverished people to be able to reassert their dignity, aid programs simply have to be holistic; combining all three facets (shelter, food security and livelihood) to succeed.

From observing the success of a community-farm project in Malaysia, and working with the KOTO Integrated Building System, I am hugely encouraged that we can replicate that in the Philippines. There is ample need here in the Philippines, whether resulting simply from rural and urban poverty or from the endless spate of natural disasters such as typhoon Yulanda (Haiyan).

Permaculture is an obvious part of that solution. Hence, I first need to learn the basics (of permaculture) in order to work beside people with whom we can deliver sustainable, holistic solutions to poverty, hunger and homelessness.