Collaborations for SDGs Catalyzed by GAIA GAYA

GAIA GAYA, a platform of making SDGs everybody’s business, invited Ms.Elyse Go, the founder of Hand and Heart as our guest sustainability leader in the 5th session held on July 18, 2020. 5 Months later, GAIA GAYA received a happy news from her, that her talk at GAIA GAYA lead to a collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines. And she contributed the article below, to share the story with us.

A Collaboration born from GAIA GAYA

by Ms. Elyse Go, Co-Founder, Hand and Hear


GAIA GAYA Indeed.


GAIA in Hebrew means conscious life, and this is exactly what GAIA GAYA as a group as achieved for us at Hand and Heart . Last July 18, 2020 We were invited by the team to talk about SDG 10- Reduced Inequalities being an advocate for PWD Inclusion at work and society in general. Last November 30, we got an unexpected call from Ms. Jessy Cornelia of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to be a resource speaker for their year end Wellness Summit because she encountered us at the GAIA GAYA webinar. It was indeed a day to remember for us. GAIA GAYA works – July 18 opened doors for us to spread awareness about Inclusion and Basic Sign Language to almost 70 government employees nationwide. The momentous event took place on last December 12, 2020. 


Disability Sensitivity Awareness 


To aid us in creating awareness, we invited our partner in the advocacy – Project Inclusion Network represented by their Executive Director Mr. Grant Javier and Work Access Coordinator Ms. Angela Santiago-Camacho. At the heart of InclUSion is US has always been the emphasis of the NGO. Their main purpose is access to work opportunities for Persons with Disability. Mr. Grant Javier shed light on some of the common misconceptions such as incorrect use of terms for persons with disability such as – mongoloid, abnormal, Deaf and Mute . He also presented best practices of some companies that has hired Persons with Disability as well as the proper way of handling them during interviews and in the workplace plus reasonable accommodations in integrating PWDs in the offices. To date, Project Inclusion Network has supported almost 2000 PWDs in Job readiness, facilitation, training, development and livelihood. 


Deaf Awareness and Basic Sign Language


Our social enterprise, Hand and Heart, took second half of the morning’s workshop by focusing on awareness about the Deaf Culture. It’s Deaf Co-Founder and General Manager shared some Do’s and Don’t, how to communicate plus common misconception . Som of which – To refer to the Deaf with a big letter D as a symbol of their identity having a unique language and culture, or that the commonly used works of the Filipinos “pipi” is unacceptable explaining that the Deaf has a voice box hence they are not Deaf and Mute. She also made emphasis on the Deaf culture of being frank, honest and tells the truth as well as the various talents they an do same as the hearing people such as drive and dance, film , poetry, and many others. The fun part came as Ms. Diokno taught Basic Sign Language to the DTI employees covering Alphabet, Numbers and commonly used phrases in the workplace. The workshop was ended with Sign Language Performances by DTI employees. 


As Hand and Heart, our hearts were really full of joy to have been made great awareness in this form. Again, truly grateful on how the seed that GAIA GAYA has planted grow and paved opportunities like this for our advocacy. GAIA is conscious life indeed.

##### END ####
This is the re-cap of GAIA GAYA Session # 5 with Elyse 🙂

ドゥマガット族の小学校でSDGsを考えた

今週土曜日(2020年10月17日)のGAIA GAYA にゲストとしてお招きしているMark Napaoさんが2017年に創設したSOLAR HopeというNPO(フィリピンの未電化地域にソーラー発電装置とソーラーランタンを導入することから始め、教育や生活向上支援をしています)が支援しているコミュニティの一つ、Dumagat族が住む地域(リサール州タナイ町)を訪ねました。GAIA GAYA ゲストの方の活動の現場となっているコミュニティをGAIA GAYAチームとしても実際に肌で感じてみたかったからです。

Ruel, Rawang小学校のRandy先生、GAIA GAYA コアチームのMartinと奥さんのGi, 私

「SDGsをみんなの自分ごとにしよう」ということを合言葉に主に啓蒙活動を5月に始動させたGAIA GAYAも10回目のセッションを迎えようとしています。SDGsのNo. 7 (エネルギーをみんなにそしてクリーンに)と SDGs No. 11 (住み続けられるまちづくりを)に関連する取組みをしているSOLAR HopeのMarkさんとのセッションを前に、未電化地域に暮らす少数民族Dumagat族のコミュニティの小学校を訪ねる機会を得ました。

コロナ禍で移動制限が7ヶ月に及んでいるフィリピンで、全国の公立学校において未登校の授業が10月5日に開始されてから1週間というタイミングでした。(ドゥテルテ大統領は、ワクチンができるまで対面授業はやらないと言っています。)

訪問した公立小学校は、幼稚園年長組レベル(キンダー)から小学6年生までの7学年で209人の生徒が在籍する小さな学校です。6人の先生たちのほとんどは20代と30代で、44歳のランディ先生がリーダーとしてみんなをまとめています。

その地域には、携帯電話のシグナルも届いていないし、もちろんインターネットもありません。電気は、小さなソーラーパネルを屋根に設置して、電灯をつけられるようになっている家がSOLAR Hopeのおかげでここ数年徐々に増えてきているという状況ですが、まだ全ての家には届いていません。

屋根の上に小さなソーラーパネル(左)を設置し、家の中にレギュレーターが設置されます。こちらの家では、土間と2つの寝室に3つのソーラーランタンが設置されていました。「夜も勉強できるというのが大きなメリット」とみんな口を揃えて言っていました。
先生たちが案内してくださって、近所のご家庭を訪問してお話を聞かせていただきました。
左上:教室の壁にあった生徒数リスト。10月6日で207人。訪問した13日には二人増えて209人とのことでした。
倒産した私立学校からこの公立小学校に転入した生徒が多いため、去年より少し生徒数が増えたそうです。
そのほかの3枚;対面授業をしないので、1週間分の教材を毎週月曜日に生徒のいる各家庭に配布します。学区内の7つの地区の家庭が教材のピックアップポイントになっていて、その地区の子供達/家庭はその家から毎週月曜日にその週使う教材をピックアップします。

数時間という短い滞在の中で、何がわかったのか、偉そうなことは全く言えないですし、そこでみたことがどこまで現実/真実に近いのかもわからない・・・という前提であえて感じたことを書いてみます。今回お話しすることができたのは、小学校の先生たち七人と、周辺に住む方々4、5世帯のみなさんです。

生活が大変だとか、苦しいとか、不満の声などは全然ありませんでした。初めて会った人にそんな話しないのかもしれないけど・・・ でもみなさんとても穏やかな表情。
左上:野菜を頭に乗せて・・・お昼ご飯のおかずになるそうです。右上:自宅学習用の教材の配布ピックアップポイントのお宅のお母さん(右)と打ち合わせする先生(左)。左下:以前は私立学校で教えていたけど、公立学校に移ってきたという先生にいろいろインタビュー。実は公立学校の方が処遇がいいことと、生徒たちの学びへの貪欲さが公立学校のほうがやりがいを感じる理由とか。右下:お父さんと娘さんにインタビューするMartin。ちなみに、この地区はコロナ感染者ゼロとのこと。

振り返ってみて感じるのは、少なくとも今回の訪問では、悲壮感や絶望感や苦痛や現状への不平不満や助けを求める声は全くありませんでした。 幸い、お芋や野菜などの食べ物はあって、貧しいながらも平和に、シンプルに暮らしている皆さんでした。インターネットなんて使ったこともなくて知らないので、必要だとも感じていない(欲しいかどうか分からない)そうです。収入源は、野菜を売ったり、サワリ(Bohoという竹を編んで作ったシート状のもので、家の壁素材として使われています)を売ったり、というぐらいだそうです。フィリピンの地方では、海外で働く家族からの送金に頼って生活している世帯もたくさんありますが、今回訪問したDumagat族の住む地域では、海外で働く家族のいる世帯は非常に少ないと聞きました。

ハーシー先生に、子供達はどんな夢や希望をもっているのかな、と聞いてみたら、「シンプルです。ちゃんと学校を卒業して、decent job(ちゃんとした仕事) を得て生活する ことを夢見ています。」ということでした。6年生のアンジェリカちゃんは、学校の先生になるか、HRM (ホテル、レストランマネジメント)関連の仕事がしたいと言っていました。知らない世界のことは夢にならないんだな、と感じました。

とってもシャイなアンドレイくん。

お土産に、私とルエルは子供達が使える鉛筆やパッドペーパーと、悦子さんのご主人が焼いてくれためっちゃ美味しいパンデサル、マーティン達はお米50kgを持っていったのですが、先生たちの間でのダントツで人気はパンデサルだったそうです。

持続可能な開発って一体何? という疑問をかかえてRawang小学校を後にしました。 ものすごく単純化して表現すると、

  • 私たちは「開発」された(発展した)生活をしている
  • 彼らは、未開発/未発展の生活をしている
  • 彼らの生活を、私たちの生活に近づけることが development
  • それを、将来の世代に負担や負の遺産を残さずに実現することが持続可能な開発

みたいなイメージを漠然と抱いていた気がします。

でも、今日ほんの数時間Dumagat族の生活に触れてみて

「発展した」私たちの生活を、彼らの生活に少し近づけるようなアプローチが持続可能な開発の鍵かもしれない、という考え方もありかも・・・みたいな思いが浮かんできました。

でも、「ちょっとだけ見たり聞いたりしたぐらいで何を言ってるんだ、ナイーブだなーアホ!」という自己批判の声が自分の中にあることも事実。 一応はそれに気づいているマインドフルネス。

Markさんと次のセッションの準備のために2回ほど打ち合わせたのですが、今まで3年半3つのコミュニティを支援する活動を通じて学んだことは、「(支援する側の)自分たちが解決策を知っているという考えが誤っていた。」ことだそうです。これと全く同じことを、ミンダナオでCoffee for Peaceという事業(コーヒー生産販売事業を通じた異宗教/異部族間の和平促進)をしている社会起業家のJojiさんが言っていたことを思い出しました。そこで暮らす人たち自身が何をどうしたいのかを自分たちで見つけ出して実現に向けて自分たちで動いていくプロセスを辛抱強く支援することが自分たちの役割だと悟ったということです。

都会暮らしのGAIA GAYA コアチームは持続可能開発のなんたるかをちょっとずつ学びながら、考えながら、気付きながら、迷いながら、間違いながら、行動を開始しました。コアチームのメンバーは、企業や政府機関を相手に、リーダーシップ開発、組織開発、様々なワークショップのファシリテーション、コーチングを仕事として長年やってきたメンバーたちです。プロとしてのその専門スキルをどうしたらSDGsの達成に向けて役立てることができるのか、プロトタイプがGAIA GAYAです。隔週土曜日の午後に開催するオンラインミーティングで、SDGsへの認知度を上げ、行動を促し、コラボレーションのきっかけとなる場をホールドすることで、間接的にSDGsに貢献できるのではないかというプロトタイプです。U理論とシステム思考もベースにしてアプローチを設計しています。

こういう活動のインパクトを定量的に評価することはすごく難しいです。でも、毎回参加者のみなさんが提出してくれる「自分はこう行動します」という宣言の内容や、感想エッセイや、フィードバックコメントを丁寧に読んでみると、参加してくれている人の意識や行動になんかちょっと変化を起こすきっかけになっているのではないか、という手応えを感じることはできます。まだまだ5ヶ月足らず、10回やっただけ。これからまだまだ進化させていきたいです。2030年と、その先のことも考えて・・・

GAIA GAYA at GAIA Journey Week 13 Arrival Session and Presencing Institute Global Forum

GAIA GAYA was Presented to the Global Community

SpiceWorx is one of the founding members of GAIA GAYA, a Philippine based initiative that raises awareness, triggers action and catalyzes collaboration for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). GAIA GAYA is a platform of making SDGs everybody’s business. SpiceWorx worked with other core members from TRAIL and Human Capital Asia to bring GAIA GAYA to presence in May 2020. As of now it is a biweekly online gathering of anybody interested in SDGs.

GAIA GAYA was born as a result of a project under U.Lab 2x by the Presencing Institute lead by Dr. Otto Scharmer and his colleagues. U.Lab 2x is a four month program for Theory U practitioners around the world to actually apply the Theory U (the U process) in real transformation projects, bringing the prototype stage initiative to the next level of making impacts.

GAIA GAYA was one of the 3 projects given an opportunity to present the Presencing Institute #GAIAjourney Week 13, the arrival session on June 19, 2020. We are truly honored to be able to introduce GAIA GAYA to the global community! I presented GAIA GAYA’s and it starts from around 1:19:00 as the host Antoinette Klatzky introduces the speaker.

The picture below presents our journey of ‘presencing’ GAIA GAYA. The points I would like to make by using this very crowded picture are only two.

First, our 4 months journey was cradled and empowered by U.Lab 2x program, GAIA journey and U. Academy.

U.Lab 2x was the platform which gave us process, tools, guidelines, practices and community as we applied Theory U in creating change we intended, which was to raise awareness and trigger action for SDGs in the Philippines.

GAIA journey gave as deep questions to contemplate, and the sense of connectedness with the global community.

A three day Digital Leadership Training by U.Academy enabled our 4 member core team to facilitate our journey digitally as in-person meetings became no longer possible during the project due to lockdown.

 U process helped us let go of our pre-COVID original plan, although we invested significant amount of time and money to prepare ourselves.

My second point is that in hind-site, COVID-19 was positive contributor in ‘presencing’ GAIA GAYA. In the past 4 months, our core team members shared about 200 hours together, mostly online. It was possible largely because we were under lockdown, we were not going anywhere, our usual business was down and we had plenty of time to allocate on U.Lab 2x project.

Since May 20, 2020 to the date of the GAIA presentation, we had four GAIA GAYA sessions. Our first 4 sessions of GAIA GAYA invited speakers addressing Poverty & Education, Deforestation, Disaster relief and Saving children from online sexual abuse and exploitation.   I am truly grateful to Mr. Arcie Mallari, the founder of Silid Aralan empowering academically underperforming students from marginalized community, Mr. Raf Dionicio, the co-founder of MAD Travel who is fighting against deforestation through sustainability conscious tourism, Ms. Sarah Queblatin, co-founder and executive director of Green Releaf Initiatives who is creating disaster resilient community with regenerative practices, and Ms. Chi-Chi Sangil, who is passionately fighting against online sexual exploitation of children.

And I would like to note that Sarah and Chi-Chi are also U.Lab 2x initiatives from the Philippines.

GAIA GAYA Booth at the Presencing Institute Global Forum on HOPIN

Three weeks after I presented GAIA GAYA to the global community for the first time, we had another big opportunity to let the world know what GAIA GAYA is doing, by joining the annual Global Forum of the Presencing Institute, organized online for the first time.

Originally, this Global Forum was scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany. If it were not for COVID-19, GAIA GAYA would not have been born and our team would not have been able to join the Global Forum by flying all the way from Manila to Berlin. It was because the event was done online, GAIA GAYA team was able to be a part of the event and we presented our short introduction video at our virtual event booth on the platform of HOPIN.

At this Global Forum, GAIA GAYA even hosted a session for dialogue with the global community of Theory U practitioners. The theme of our session was “Dialogue on Measuring Indirect Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals”.

I will write about this bold attempt in another blog.


Presencing GAIA GAYA to the World

GAIA GAYA has taken its first step towards a long journey of making SDGs everybody’s business on May 20, 2020 with 40 people from the Philippines and Japan on Zoom.

GAIA GAYA will be a biweekly gathering of anyone who is interested in contributing to the fruition of any of the 17 SDGs by 2030. It is an open space for deep listening, conversation and dialogue, raising awareness and triggering action that addresses the SDGs. 

Founders Team Brought Together by Theory U

It was organized and facilitated by #uLab2x 2020 Philippines Learning Nation team, namely Dada de Leon-Salud of Human Capital Asia, Chenny Galano and Abby Galias Rosal of TRAIL and Tae “Abbie” Abe-Abion from SpiceWorx (yours truly), the core members and founders of GAIA GAYA. These four professional facilitators and coaches came together to hold a container for deep listening, conversation and dialogue with an aspiration to make Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) everybody’s business.  

In facilitating change initiatives, we use Theory U, an awareness based systems transformation approach developed by Dr. Otto Scharmer, the Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. Theory U is what brought the four of us together. We are part of the uLab 2x Program of the Presencing Institute, which was founded by Dr. Otto Scharmer and his colleagues, with the belief that it is possible to create results that serve the wellbeing of all. Our team joined uLab2x with an intention to raise awareness and trigger actions towards achieving the SDGs in the Philippines. GAIA GAYA is our prototype for this intention.

Our invitation to everyone is to join GAIA GAYA and:

  • Listen to inspiring real stories of sustainability initiatives;
  • Engage in conversation and dialogue with people with common interest in creating a sustainable future;
  • Sense and see the system we collectively enact;
  • Reimagine sustainable future of our planet;
  • Be inspired to start your own action;
  • Be inspired to sustain your sustainability journey.

For our very first GAIA GAYA on May 20, 2020, we invited a guest speaker Arcie, the founder and Chief Motivation Officer of Silid Aralan, Inc. Silid Aralan gives power to academically under-performing students from the underprivileged community to decide on their own. What I so deeply admire about Arcie is his compassion and empathy to the people he wants to empower, and his dedication and commitment to help them by truly understanding their perspective. He lived for 3 years in the community beside the garbage dump site in Manila, where people make living by scavenging. He said, “I tended to think only from the perspective of the giver. I needed to really understand the perspective of the receiver.” Having experienced the life of the receivers, this is what he has to say: “There is no rich person who cannot receive, nor a poor person who cannot give.”

We were so blessed to also have Kent, one of the graduates of Silid Aralan who is now a public school teacher, to share his amazing experience. By joining Silid Aralan, Kent learned how fun learning was, and was able to see a world of more options, possibilities and opportunities. As a public school teacher, he is now giving back what Silid Aralan gave him to the next generation.

What Arcie was able to share in a 30-minute talk was inspiring and beautiful. But he also shared it has been very difficult. I am sure behind today’s beautiful presentation and amazing story there had been tons of struggles, conflicts, frustrations, tears and disappointments. But he was resilient. Silid Aralan empowered lives of over 7,500 Filipino children since 2007 and now has 8 learning hubs nationwide in the Philippines. And Arcie is even expanding this model to Indonesia!

GAIA GAYA asks participants, “What micro changes at personal level will you make after today’s session?

GAIA GAYA is not just a webinar. It is a space for deep listening, conversation and dialogue with reflective moments woven into the process. Our intention is to change personal and collective awareness to trigger actions for change. Here are what our participants wrote in the Zoom chatbox, as their own personal micro-changes after joining GAIA GAYA.

  • “To pause for a moment always and have more hope/trust in those who you may not expect much from at first”
  • “Start conversations and establishing meaningful relationships with future ‘educators.'”
  • “Get in touch with Silid Aralan and find ways to contribute in their vision.”
  • “Pause. I continue to engage in learning initiatives. Read and share the learning.”
  • “I will take bold steps in initiating SDG conversations with others — I sort of started and they said yes to this event ;)”
  • “look for and believe in others’ strengths more.”
  • “To be more mindful that each individual has a gift/talent that can contribute to society. So I should allow other forms of intelligence/talents.”
  • “To actually stay in the community that you want to help. Not just visit them. I think this will help them more. Thank you Arcie and Kent!”
  • “Share the inspiring stories so that people will start believing that there are people who work for the good in the world.”
  • “Be a believer of every child’s potential and be their supporter.”
  • “Taking positive steps towards achieving the improvement that these kids are more than capable of achieving. :)”
  • “Encourage and engage with the young ones. Thank you very much for this inspiring and insightful session Arcie and Kent.”
  • “Every person is good at SOMETHING let us do our best to help them find their something.”
  • “Start writing ideas the [sic] come around, meditate on how to do a step in doing so.”
  • “Thank you for this session, everyone. 🙂 Will take a note of the emails being left here.. I might have questions on how others will resume their educational journey in COVID19 times.The learning platforms are the biggest challenge and it’s difficult to determine how the children can continue effectively. :(“

Thank you Arcie, Kent, and everyone who attended and shared your thoughts and what micro-changes you will make at your personal level after the session. GAIA GAYA will be held every other week to make SDGs everybody’s business 🙂

About GAIA GAYA

GAIA GAYA came into presence as a prototype of transformation initiative by Dada, Chenny, Abby and Abbie, based in Manila, Philippines, under the uLab2x program of Presencing Institute by Dr. Otto Scharmer and his team. The four core members formed an intention of raising awareness and triggering action about the SDGs in the Philippines in November 2019, and started the project in February 2020, applying the philosophy, process, methodology and tools of Theory U.

With the participation and support of the extended team of this initiative, the four core members went through the co-initiation of the project, co-sensing of the context and the current system, hours and hours of training and live online sessions with the global community of the Theory U practitioners through various programs of Presencing Institute including GAIA (Global Activation of Intention and Action), a 14 week journey on a platform of profound personal and civilizational renewal, joined by over 9,000 people around the world.

Thus, the idea of GAIA GAYA was born on the morning of May 2, 2020. Inspired by the GAIA initiative by the Presencing Institute, GAIA GAYA follows the format of GAIA, with localized content and speakers with specific focus on SDGs in the Philippines. In less than 3 weeks, the first live session of GAIA GAYA was launched on Zoom on May 20, 2020 with 40 participants.

By the way, the naming of GAIA GAYA is a play of words.

GAYA GAYA in Filipino means copying, duplicating, mirroring, replicating and spreading. GAIA GAYA replicates the format of original GAIA by Otto’s team in PI with localized content and speakers with specific focus on SDGs in the Philippines.

In addition, GAYA GAYA in Japanese represents the sound of many people talking and discussing. GAIA GAYA is a place for many people to gather and engage in conversation and dialogue about sustainability of GAIA, our planet.