We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, it is a country that is full of wonderful and welcoming people, amazing biodiversity, gorgeous beaches and has great weather to boot.  Unfortunately it is also a country with a lot of heartache.  As you can see from the attached video the town of Agoo, where this project is based, has had a very rough year.

Take a look at the below footage which was taken in and around the area a few weeks ago.  I was interviewed on BBC World twice during the storm, if you're interested there is a link to one of the the interviews here.

The Philippines gets battered by storms like that 20 times a year on average and, to be honest, there's not much anyone can do to stop that.  What we can do is make the recovery easier by helping the local economy grow.

Charity for the sake of itself is pointless most of the time

Being as I am not someone who believes in giving people handouts, although I do fervently support the concept of giving people a hand up, I have an idea.  Every year thousands of people leave the Philippines to go and work abroad, the vast majority of them in unskilled positions and they are often treated very badly while they are there. 

Overseas workers come at tremendous social cost to themselves and those left behind

Take a look at the below infographic from Rappler to give you an indication of just what the vital statistics are.  Overseas workers are generally unksilled, often employed in a domestic capacity in richer countries.  Regularly mistreated and usually employed as a special class of employees that do not have access to the same rights as locals.

Most of these workers would not leave if they had the choice to stay with their families

Having now lived in the country for a couple of years I’ve come to understand one of the biggest causes of this.  It’s not so much poverty as it is a lack of access to vocational training.  I spent most of my professional career in marketing and prior to moving into that specific discipline I was in hotel management. 

What have we got already?

On our lot we have a free standing two level apartment building which we’ve been leasing quite successfully using channels like AirBnB.  We have had guests come through from everywhere from Western Europe to the United States to Australia and the feedback we are getting is fantastic (take a look at some of the reviews here if you’re interested).

What we've done so far is getting noticed

What we’ve found since we started this is that a lot of people around have approached us and asked how exactly it is that we’re managing to get people on the ground here.  That skill is a big part of what I want to teach as a part of what we’re planning to do.  It has been achieved through a combination of social media marketing, destination marketing, local marketing and video marketing.  These are not complicated once you understand how they work but unless someone shows you then you'll never have the skill set.  The one thing that this has highlighted to me is that a lot of the people in the community want to learn new skills but lack the opportunity to do so.

An example of one of the videos that we've pushed out, which garnered 1000 views in its first month online.  This really demonstrates the potential that the area has.

We're also very active on Facebook and have used it to successfully bring people into the area who otherwise would probably never have visited.

Passing on real world skills while improving the economy

I want to combine our experience in business with this piece of property and our passion to help the local community by converting it into a boutique hotel which focuses on offering on the job, paid training to local school leavers who perhaps aren’t going to be able to make it to university straight away due to financial constraints. 

This is going to achieve a few things in the immediate term as well as have some really solid long-term impact on the community as well.

1)       IMMEDIATE OPPORTUNITY: It will provide employment. 

2)       ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: It will bring more people into the area to spend money in and around the area.

3)       A SKILLSET FOR LIFE: It will give us the chance to train people in a worthwhile, internationally useful vocation that will be with them for their whole lives.

What skills do we want to focus on passing on with this project?

•          How to effectively market a property and generate bookings online.
•          Accounting and business management skills.
•          Computer skills.
•          Food & Beverage preparation and delivery skills.
•          Inventory management skills.
•          Customer service and relationship management.

After six months working with us the candidates would then go into a work placement program where we would use our network to get them placed in resorts and hotels elsewhere in the province and elsewhere in the Philippines.  This will achieve another, extremely important, goal:

It will enable them to find opportunities to have a good career and earn a living without the need to look abroad.

What could this mean to people who are helped by the project?

Having a vocation which you can take with you into the workforce is priceless.  It builds confidence, it also enables you to provide for your family.  These are things that so many of us overseas take for granted, they are not things that can be taken for granted here.  This truly is teaching a man to fish instead of buying him lunch and it has the potential to make a huge difference to a community that needs it.

What help do we need from you to make it happen?

Firstly, there are only two apartments on the site at the moment.  We already have planning consent to add two more levels to the building.  The first priority is doing that so that we not only have accommodation for the people who are going to be working with us but also have more inventory to market. 

We've already invested about as much as we can manage right now and we can't finish the project by ourselves - we need some help to really create something that is going to endure and last as well as make a real difference to the local community.

This is going to cost about another 20,000 USD to complete by the time they’re constructed, furnished and ready for occupancy.  Construction happens very quickly here so we will have them done within 2-3 months of getting the funding.

From this point we would be able to get started straightaway.    The income from these apartments will go into supporting the people we are helping, paying for the upkeep of the property and operational expenses such as marketing, communications infrastructure and all the various licenses and other costs that are associated with a venture of this type.

The long game, what's next?

Adjacent to the property there is another lot which is for sale, it has a derelict house on it but it is wide and flat and would make an ideal space for a function center, restaurant and more accommodation.  Purchase of this property and construction would come in at about 150,000 USD by the time we were all done.   If we exceed our funding goal this round then we will also hopefully get started on that process, otherwise we may run another campaign once the apartments are complete.

The end game, broad, sustained and long lasting community impact

Once the property is completely finished and fully operational I want it to put 100% of its profits back into the local community.  This means that we would run initiatives like making sure that local school children have access to nutritious lunches when their parents can’t quite make ends meet, providing free training courses for people in the community and many, many other things.

Why should you care, what reason is there for you to support this initiative?

It’s the right thing to do, the Philippines is a country that faces a lot of adversity but the people here are amazingly tough, always positive about the future and this is one small way that you can make a very big difference in the lives of some people who really will appreciate it.

What you can do if you can't contribute money right now

Please share this campaign with your network.  Get the word out.  We appreciate your help.

What will we do if we don't raise enough money this round?

That really depends on how close we get.  If we can only start with one more apartment and not two then we will.  If we don’t make it that far then it the cash will be made available to the local population either by a donation to a school or community organization.  However far this campaign gets I guarantee you that every dollar you contribute will go towards changing lives in this community. I believe that we can go all the way and I believe that, once we're finished, every person who was involved in making it happen will look back with pride at what has been accomplished.

A few words about the higher tier perks

The top three perk levels ($1000, $5000 and $10,000) come with something very special included.  Anyone who commits to the project at that level will also have the opportunity to work with people on the groun in the Philippines (either by Skype or in person) to bring things to fruition.  We want to build a council of wise people around us who are also prepared to make sure that we get where we need to be.  Please don't donate at these levels just for the naming rights, we'd really prefer that people who commit to us with that amount of money have a desire to be actively engaged in the process of setting up and operating the program.