A 'Cooling' Insight to Enchantea

Overview

Dubbed as “the official drink of nation-builders”, Happy Green Enchantea is a natural and healthy beverage that is proudly co-designed, brewed and bottled by the residents of the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan. This great tasting native tea is a great detoxifying drink brewed from five all-Filipino tea ingredients: lemongrass, duhat, pandan, avocadao and kalamansi, all sourced from Philippine community farms.  

  Another product under the brand is the Salabatea, a powdered ginger tea drink one can enjoy instantly with a few teaspoons of the powder mixed with warm water. Health benefits include providing relief from nausea, motion sickness, constipation, coughing and sore throat. It also helps in blood thinning and lowering cholesterol, especially among people with risk of heart disease.

A community, driven by a culture of caring and sharing, is united in all efforts towards a progressive nation. This is why social entrepreneurs Justin dela Cruz and Noel Masinsin of Happy Green chose the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm to start a business, a venture providing jobs for villagers of GK communities in the province. 

Enchantea is the brainchild of Tita Linda Maningas (a GK resident of the Enchanted farm), who formulated and came up with the recipe for the delicious tasting tea. It started off with the iced tea that Linda served to visitors in the area in early 2010.  She learned how to make it through a seminar for villagers of the GK community. Over time, she improved the taste of the beverage and developed the recipe that is still in use today. People visiting the farm grew fond of it and asked for second servings. “This was consistent for almost everyone, including the GK staff, foreign visitors and other guests. Happy Green then stepped up to develop the iced tea into a product that can be known outside and not just within the farm,” said Justin. 

Since then, Enchantea has been bottled, labelled and distributed as a Happy Green product that supports the GK CSI initiative with GK communities. The collaboration between Justin, Noel and residents of the GK communities is an expression of Bayanihan where knowledge is exchanged to fulfil a bigger mission – which is to end poverty in the country as well as to help others aspire to be better.  

Profile of Founder

27-year-old Justin Dela Cruz first got to know about GK when he was still an undergraduate student. He first got involved with GK in 2009 via a different social enterprise he was building with his teammates back then. They were doing feeding programs for malnourished children, using spirulina algae as their main food ingredient and thought that a partnership could be formed whereby a few GK communities and other farming communities could start off producing the algae for themselves. A partnership was subsequently formed. But as their involvement with GK got deeper, they realized more and more that child malnutrition is just a symptom of a bigger problem, which is the lack of countryside development. So that's the problem they are now trying to address with Happy Green.

Justin graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management with a minor in global entrepreneurship from Ateneo de Manila University. He also had a small stint for business exchange at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University before graduation. Following which, he studied for one year at the Beijing Language and Culture University, whilst embarking on an internship at an IT company simultaneously.

Justin decided to become a social entrepreneur because he wanted to make development in the Philippines, and also simply to work, while at the same time addressing his personal preference of having a business of his own.

Current Situation

Kapitbahayan members (neighbourhood association) of the Enchanted Farm and nearby GK communities help source the ingredients locally from within the farm, with the exception of sugar and Vitamin C which has to be sourced from outside. Tea leaves are grown locally in the area; Happy Green engages with other farms in the area and sources the leaves from them. The packaging on the bottles is the brainchild of a French intern – 22 year-old Clarisse Simmoneau who came up with the design for the bottles during her 3 month stay on the farm. She is a graphics artist who helped design the logo and packaging.

At the moment, Enchantea is sold in bottles of 500ml at a RRP of 30 pesos. This may seem slightly high considering the cost of living in the Philippines; but according to Justin, the higher selling price is due to the fact that the ingredients are all natural and there is no use of artificial flavouring. The team is banking on authenticity in marketing their products. Monthly sales of the tea range between 5,000 to 6,000 bottles a month. Human Nature plays a part in the distribution of the bottles to Metro Manila.

Video Compilation of School Exhibition 

My Homestay experience on the farm

My host family was with Tita Cecelia (or Tita Celia for short). Through the short 4 nights I spent with her and her family – she has 3 boys and a girl, I learnt that she was one of the survivors of Typhoon Ondoy that ravaged the Philippines in September 2009. She lost her home then. While most of us would probably have been felt lost and helpless when faced with such adversity, Tita Celia drew courage from her children and proceeded to rebuild her life. With the help of Gawad Kalinga, she built a new home in the Enchanted Farm Angat, Bulacan where she now has a job as part of the cleaning committee.

Tita Celia wakes every morning at about 615am and proceeds with her daily chores of sweeping the compound, cleaning the toilets and washing the roads. For her contribution on the farm, she earns some 350 peso ($11) a week, a small sum to many of us here, but she uses part of that money to fund her kids’ education. Despite the relatively low cost of education in the Philippines, (elementary school costs 250 Pesos a month while high school costs 500 Pesos a month) the amount she makes is still insufficient to send her eldest daughter to school. Hence her 17 year-old daughter, Lucille stays at home doing the household chores whilst working part time collecting and selling drink bottles. Her youngest son, 11-year-old Jhonluis attends elementary school while her 13 year-old and 15 year-old boys attend high school.

I was given my own room to sleep in; I felt bad as it was probably the room where the boys shared. Since I ‘moved’ in with them, her two younger boys had to sleep outside on the floor, while her elder boy slept on the chairs in the house. Tita Celia shares the other room with her daughter. Despite the boys sleeping outside, they never failed to smile at me everytime I walked into the door. I grew close to the younger boy, Jhonluis, as he was most frequently at home. He could barely speak or understand and English, yet the simple non-verbal communication we shared spoke volumes. It was very heart-warming hearing him call me ‘Kuya Ben’ (Kuya means elder brother in Tagalog) too.

During our trip, she invited the four of us to attend a simple ceremony to remember her late daughter, who passed away last year due to leukaemia. Despite the sadness of her past, she still manages to smile for the future. We were treated to home-made kuehs and desserts after the short ceremony that involved some prayers and singing.

  I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to live with Tita Celia and her family for 4 nights. They never fail to ask if I am doing fine and show concern by offering little things like a cup of coffee every morning, or inviting me to try some of their home-cooked snacks. Despite the little they have, their hospitality was very endearing; I will always remember them. 

- Ben

My inspiration...

I know that there are poor people in this world. Yes I’ve heard stories about slums and children scavenging the streets for food. I’ve seen the pictures of the poor and marginalised. However the extent of the poverty situation still took me by surprise when I went on my maiden OCIP trip last December.

I saw for myself houses whose conditions were beyond what we would call humane. I saw families lying on cardboard boxes on the pathways or benches along the road. I saw people dangerously standing in the middle of busy roads trying to sell their goods in the hope of making enough to put food on their tables for their families; if only for that day.

It’s sad and unfair no matter how you think of it. We readily complain upon reaching home all tired from school and realising that dinner is not yet ready. We complain when forced to sit down to eat dinner with the family. And we complain when today’s dinner consist of just chicken, rice and a vegetable dish. But really, will waiting a few more minutes for dinner to be ready lead us to starvation? Is being forced to sit down together and eat such a problem? Is a simple meal of meat, rice and vegetable not enough? Well if those are sources of complains, let me tell you this, there are MANY others who have more genuine sources of complains. For they are the ones who do not even know if they will even be having dinner that day, or the next.

My first ever trip (and will most definitely NOT be my last) opened my eyes to many things. For one, it forced me to step out of my comfort zone, a zone where everything was provided for, and start reflecting on what I was doing in life. Here I was, all of 23, and having concerns and problems that can be considered mundane when compared with theirs. During the trip I met with many who had faced adversities far worse than me, that my own problem seem too tiny to even to compare. I met families that used to stay under bridges or in small crammed slums. I met some who were displaced from their houses due to natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. And I met some who had lost family in that very same natural disaster that took away from them their homes. A very special beneficiary I met and will never forget is Tita Celia - a single mother of 3 boys and 2 girls.  

In September 2009, Tita Celia lost her home due to typhoon Ondoy. She then lost her youngest daughter to cancer. While most of us would probably have been lost when faced with such adversities, Tita Celia drew courage from her children and proceeded to rebuild her life. With the help of Gawad Kalinga, she built a new home in the Enchanted Farm Angat, Bulacan where she now has a job and her 4 children are settled back in school. Meeting and talking to one as courageous as her was certainly an honour.  During our trip, we even attended a ceremony to remember her late daughter. Despite the sadness of her past, she still manages to smile for the future.

To Tita Celia,

Your courage in the face of adversity is admirable. We do hope to be able to meet with you once again in the near future. Till then take care! Continue to smile and laugh as each morning comes. We miss you:)

To those of you reading this, Tita Celia’s story is just one of many. Each beneficiary has their own story to tell, all just as inspiring. I hence urge you to take some time off, spend it with them and be inspired. I know I was!

Siti

Last December (Dec 5th - 9th), a team of 4 NUS Business School students - (from L to R in above pic: Fennita, Benjamin, Jiawei and Siti; taken with our Filipino Coordinator, Roma, in blue) embarked on a trip to the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Angat Bulacan Province, the Philippines.

During this short 5 day stint, we got to stay with the villagers in their homes that GK helped them build, eat with them, interact with them and experience life on the Enchanted Farm as a whole.

For some of us, it was the first time embarking on a OCIP research trip; for Fennita and myself, it was our 2nd or 3rd time on such trips. Coming together as a team aspiring to make a positive difference in the lives of the underprivileged, we came back from the trip blessed by our experiences in the Philippines. The kind hospitality of the residents and the warmness of their soul touched our hearts deeply.

Through this blog, we hope to raise awareness about the work of GK and the global poverty situation. In the coming weeks, we will be posting details of our trip so that you guys will be able to gain a better understanding into life on the Enchanted Farm. We will also share with you how GK has managed to transform the lives of the people in the village and will feature stories on some of the social enterprises on the Enchanted Farm.

We hope that you’ll follow us through this wonderful journey in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, do visit the links on the right side for more information about GK and OCIP and 'follow us' if you are on Tumblr and/or subscribe to our RSS feeds! :)

Looking Back on the Magic of GK Enchanted Farm

My group’s journey took us to GK Enchanted Farm. GK Enchanted Farm is being developed as the incubator for social entrepreneurial start-ups, encouraging innovation using green technology. The video made by us would have told part of the story. How can an experience of a few days be captured in a short 5-min video? You have to experience it yourself to know what it is like.

As part of our project, we planned to spend our time doing research work on how we can promote the work of GK to people back in Singapore. We toured every site of the farm, understood how the farm worked, the structure behind it etc, and spoke to many of the entrepreneurs starting business there. Of course, in the meantime we also spent time interacting with the people. Amazing people.

One thing you noticed as soon as you step into the community was the hospitality of the people. We felt very welcomed. Our group was split up with each of us staying with a family. What touches me is that these families actually volunteered to host visitors, strangers like us, out of their own willingness. For me it was the Tatel family. Tito Jhun and Tita Jenny along with Vincent Jhunieal and the twins Joshua and Julius (‘J’ family and I am also J.) They touched me with their act of sharing. The house was not very spacious in the first place. There were two rooms and the length of each was probably slightly longer than our height. This means that once you lie down you pretty much covered the entire length of the room. To accommodate me, the twins moved to the parents’ room while I shared a room with the older brother. Because of me, 4 of them had to squeeze inside a room. And I was just a stranger. But perhaps the use of the word ‘stranger’ is inappropriate, because from the time I stepped into their house, they never made me felt like one. For Benjamin’s family, they actually gave up an entire room for him while the siblings slept in the living room. You might wonder, don’t they feel inconvenienced? Perhaps yes, but at the end of the day it just occurred to us that they value friendships and relationships more than anything else. It was wrong of us to think of it as ‘inconvenience’; we should think of it as relationship building. These are people who are willing to share with you whatever little things they have. And you thought you were going to be a ‘giver’; I, for one, received first.

No matter how clichéd it may sound, but really, you receive when you give. For us, it was a journey of self-discovery. Many a time, we wanted to stay longer to interact with the villagers, play with the kids running about in every corner of the village, watch the older ones rehearsing for their dance for the upcoming Christmas party, visit the pre-school or simply help out with any work. But our project was at the back of our minds. Knowing that there was a presentation to GK HQ at the end of our trip made us spend a great deal of time by ourselves on our work. I think being cooped up at work is Singapore’s specialty, and sadly we had brought this with us on the trip. On our last night, we actually worked until midnight and even wanted to continue with it the next morning before our departure. Then we met Tito Jhun who was heading for his second job as an overnight security guard. His shift finished at 6am and he would catch up on sleep in the morning. He came over and spoke to us.

“You guys leaving tomorrow? What time? Okay, I will be up one hour before that to see you off and we can have our last singing session” (We had a previous singing session together with him playing the guitar. He is quite a talent.)

That really struck us. What have we been doing? The very foundation of Gawad Kalinga is in building relationships. And how can our group expect to promote the cause of GK if we fail in the ‘relatonship’ part? So the next morning, we set our work aside and spent our last morning interacting with the people. And of course, the guitar and singing session with Tito Jhun (who had only rested for 2 hours before that). In the end, there was no presentation due to time constraints. We are glad we didn’t ‘waste’ our last morning in GK Enchanted Farm. Our group came to realize that work would always somehow be done, but we will never be able to ‘somehow’ recover our lost time in the GK villages.

Our group were grappling with how to promote GK. We thought of several approaches, but somehow we felt that something was lacking. Then the answer just reveals itself isn’t it? RELATIONSHIP. Because we saw the importance of it. Back in Singapore, our projects would centre on relationship building. We want to make the community here stronger. That’s why we came up with initiatives like our newly created Facebook group to connect every GK volunteer in Singapore.

I would urge all of you to feel the GK experience yourself. Go with an open heart and leave everything in Singapore behind. You will find that you will receive in ways you never expect and you can contribute in ways you never thought possible.

The youths of today would be the leaders that shape tomorrow’s world. Either you can choose to continue to abuse the poor, or you can choose to take their hand and walk alongside with them.

Our story is just one out of the many stories that have been told in all the GK communities. What is your story? We look forward to hearing it.

Jiawei

Reaching out to ACJC :)

Today was our 2nd of 3 exhibitions at JCs around Singapore, with the 3rd being NYJC on 21st March.

It was our first time at ACJC, and we were really excited to meet and share our experience with GK to the students there. We quickly set up our booth and waited for the crowd to come in.

The students started trickling in from 915am onward and we went forth showing the students the video introducing Gawad Kalinga to them. As the crowd started to swell from 11am, all of us were kept busy handing out leaflets and sharing more about GK to the eager young minds. We were very encouraged when students asked us questions and expressed interest in participating in OCIP trips to the Philippines.

Personally, I feel that embarking on such a trip is something you should do at least once in your life. To students reading this post, I highly encourage you guys consider volunteering your time and effort in going on a trip. It will definitely change your perspective of life as you will witness things that you will never get to see in Singapore. Moreover, it's not just work and no play - the time you get to spend with the beneficiaries will definitely enrich your lives. Who knows, you might come back with even more passion for GK and join us in volunteering for GK! :Þ

In sum, we enjoyed ourselves at ACJC and we hope that you guys enjoyed listening to our short sharing. Remember to access the links on the right of this tumblr for more information! Hope to see you volunteering with GK really soon!  :)

Cheers!

Benjamin

Trip Experience Part 3 - Day 1: Arrival into the Enchanted Farm

5th December 2011

Upon arrival into the Farm, we were brought to a huge shed where we had a slightly longer chat with Roma (the Filipino coordinator, in case you forgot). We were also formally introduced to Tito Tony, the founder of GK himself. We were indeed lucky and honoured to have met him and spoke to him, as we definitely were very much inspired by his story, dreams and vision for Gawad Kalinga and the Enchanted Farm. He had many exciting things planned for the EF - a floating restaurant, spa and massage services are among the new initiatives to be built at the EF - targeted date of completion was June 2012.

Roma briefing us

We later adjourned to the Human Nature store for lunch where we met Frank, the CEO of the Enchanted Farm, and Jai, his right hand man, who talked to us a little bit more about Human Nature (Spotlight on Human Nature to be in a separate post in future) and also, how they got involved in the work of GK. Both of them are very smart young men - graduates from Filipino Universities; Jai is only 22 (i think! haha). They were willing to give up higher paying jobs and dedicate their prime of their life helping the poor in their country via Gawad Kalinga. We were super inspired by their stories and were touched by their selflessness.

Jai talking to Jiawei about Human Nature

Following lunch, we were introduced to Lito - a 52-year-old full-time GK volunteer who's the IT head of the EF. He runs a mini 'computer centre' on the farm where the villagers (mostly children and teenagers) get to use computers and even access their facebook accounts for a small fee! Yes, many of them do have facebook! Lito was very kind to bring us around the EF for the next three days and we sought his help whenever we needed him. He then led us on a tour of the EF.

GK houses still under construction

Bamboo Palace under construction - to be used as a multi-purpose hall for major events and conventions

Common area

Farm plots where the villagers get to do their own farming and harvest crops for sale and personal consumption

Us taking in the sights of the farm

Construction of Bed & Breakfast still in progress. These are to cater to the influx of larger groups who stay overnight on the farm. Currently, visitors live in dormitories or with host families on the farm.

With Lito - our 'tour guide' for the rest of the time on the farm

Reaching out to VJC :)

Today we went down to Victoria JC to participate in the CIP Fair representing Gawad Kalinga. We had a good time sharing with the students and other non-profit organisation representatives about GK. Yeah!

It was a wonderful experience; though some of us got sore throat at the end of the day.

But... we were extremely happy when someone came to us and wanted to know more about Gawad Kalinga. The feeling was just great when someone showed enthusiasm regarding what we shared about GK, initiated to sign up with us for follow up, looked around our booth, and watched our videos. You guys pumped a huge power to motivate us to keep spreading the word of GK and ultimately help the poor.

Imagine how you can make a difference, even just by talking shortly to somebody that you don't know, how you can contribute to community and how you can help the poor.

It's just a reflection on how we felt after meeting and sharing with you guys.

- Fennita

Hi guys!

Thanks for visiting our blog. We hope you have enjoyed our short sharing with you over at VJ earlier in the day. You can access the links to your right to find out more about us. If you have any questions, you can also click "Ask Me Anything" on the right or drop an email to [email protected] Lastly, don't forget to tell your friends about us and reblog us! Smiles :)

Our Video: Experience in GK Enchanted Farm

Check our the video on our experience in GK Enchanted Farm.

It was indeed a fruitful and meaningful journey.

Trip Experience Part 2: Arrival in Manila!

5th December 2011

We flew Tiger Airways from Singapore Budget Terminal to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport, arriving early at approximately 6am. Roma (the Filipino coordinator for GK) and Tito Larry (our driver) were there to pick us up upon arrival and they brought us for breakfast at the Pancake House, enroute to the Enchanted Farm. During breakfast, Roma shared with us on how she got involved in GK and we were really encouraged by her selflessness and dedication to the work of GK.

Above: My breakfast at Pancake House - Cinnamon toast :)

Approximately 1 hour later, we turned into Angat Pandi Road where the big Gawad Kalinga sign greeted us.

The road that led into the GK Enchanted Farm was probably 800-1000m long and along the way, we saw the poorer houses and shops made of attap and zinc roofs. Some kids were playing along the road in.

Shortly after, we pulled into the Enchanted Farm! There was this huge gate that welcomed us into the farm. Fennita, Jiawei and Siti just couldn't help but resist a jump shot there. :p

More to come later...

Trip Experience Part 1: Pre-trip preparations

Our purpose for the trip to the Enchanted Farm was to go there and experience how life goes on in the community there, to interact with the villagers there and to return to Singapore and come up with some marketing collaterals to promote the Enchanted Farm as a form of Social Tourism.

Prior to the trip, we had numerous meetings with Rina, the GKHi Centre Manager who shared with us her own experiences with GK and the experiences of other school teams that went on trips to the Philippines. We sat down with her and discussed in depth with her what we objectives we would like to achieve for the trip and she gladly told us how she could help us achieve those objectives.

We heard so much of this pet project by Tito Tony and were excited to visit this farm as part of our 'project'. Hence before this trip, we did our own research, watched videos like the one posted below to find out exactly what is this Enchanted Farm about.

The GK Enchanted Farm is the canvas for Gawad Kalinga’s second phase of the 2024 road map to end poverty in the Philippines. Once idle and unproductive, the area is being transformed into a landscape of vast potential that will sustain communities for generations to come. The first of 24 CSI sites around the Philippines, The Enchanted Farm in Bulacan follows a template that fuses three different concepts:

Village University for sustainable community development where classrooms are connected to communities

A Silicon Valley for social entrepreneurship where young entrepreneurs are provided a supportive business ecosystem and an enabling environment to help them launch Filipino brands, and

a Disneyland for social tourism in which visitors from other parts of the Philippines and abroad can get a first-hand experience of the Gawad Kalinga community, and gain insight to the social problems that face millions of Filipinos.

You can read more about the Enchanted Farm by following this link here

This video introduces you to the GK Enchanted Farm

Watch this video to find out more about the work of Gawad Kalinga