Ecosave Philippines Outreach June 2025

Ecosave Philippines Outreach June 2025 

Written by Rebekah Hyuna Lee

 

This June, Ecosave members traveled to the Philippines for our second outreach trip of the year. Upon arriving in Manila, we traveled to Creek Village—a slum home to around 300 impoverished households, where most residents struggle to get by on a monthly income of less than 100 dollars. Like many similar villages across the country, Creek Village has been planned to be demolished by the government, which seeks to remove these villages due to the striking poverty they face and the degrading impression they create of the country as a result. These burnings strip thousands of villagers of their homes and force them to relocate to inhospitable and destitute conditions. We visited the portion of the village that remains inhabited and were greeted by a swarm of young children, excited by our arrival.

 

In this village, our objective was to install solar-powered street lamps across the village to provide a safer environment for villagers at night. We set out across the village to install the streetlamps we had bought from Korea at 10 different locations by attaching them to the exterior of households. After the installation of the street lamps, each Ecosave member led a group of children to plog around the village. After the sun had set, we returned to Creek village to feel the difference ourselves and observe the bustling village among the well-lit streets. 

The next day, we traveled to Tanza 1 and visited the Little Hands Daycare Center with a lesson on alphabets. Our members delivered an interactive presentation on each alphabet, spent time helping each child write the letters of their name, and led an engaging activity where each child made bracelets of their names with their newly-learnt knowledge on alphabets. This lesson not only provided an enriching learning experience for the children, but was another great way for Ecosave members to bond with them.

 

Following the activity, we once again took photos with instant film cameras to capture the special occasion and handed out the kids’ favorite Jollibee meals to wrap up the occasion. 

Our club traveled back to Manila, to the Mall of Asia, for our last planned activity of this outreach: fundraising to support birth registration. The theme of this fundraiser was Squid Game, and our members prepared Squid Game-themed business cards with information on Openhands and Ecosave to hand out to shoppers and game participants, like how it is iconically done in Squid Game. At the rooftop of the mall, we set up an interactive area with three stations of different games: jump rope, jegi-chagi, and ttakji-chigi. By successfully completing a number of any game, participants were given a prize of assorted Korean snacks, encouraging them to look further into our club’s efforts to support the issue. 

Each year, our club seeks new methods of campaigning and making meaningful influence. By strengthening bonds with villages we’ve come to know and reaching out to new ones, we stay committed to expanding our areas of influence on communities in the Philippines.