Jane Walker, inspirational power house and founder of the Purple Community Fund (PCF) had invited me to participate in an education-development project for the residents of Manila’s most densely populated slum, Barangay 105 in Tondo.

PCF supports the community through a range of services and livelihood schemes, its signature project being the making of upcycled products including bags and jewellery made from ring pulls, to shoes out of aeroplane tyres.

Last year, Leftover Threads sold PCF upcycled products at UK festivals giving 100% of the money back to the charity.

The original plan for my stay in Manila was for me to design a festival range of hats and waist-coats made out of neckties for the nanays (mothers) working in the livelihood centre to sew. Nature, however, had a different plan.

With smoke still billowing from the volcano, 80,000 passengers had their flights cancelled or delayed but luckily my connecting flight from Hong Kong was one of the first to arrive in Manila. As we began our descent, I could see the big ash cloud lingering threateningly.

Upon arrival, Jane and I quickly decided that the easiest way to give immediate support to the Tondo community would be to provide face masks. Mask prices locally had quadrupled in the days that followed the eruption making them unaffordable for many. Could we make some? Of course we could!

At the time, there weren’t many patterns online. We downloaded one from craftpassion.com.

Within 24 hours of my arrival, I had trained a team of 20 women to make the masks using recycled textiles we had at hand. Bed sheets, shirts, t-shirts, school uniforms, you name it.

Over a 1000 masks were distributed to the local residents of Tondo in our first week of mask production.

When lockdown was announced at the beginning of March, I was working at the PCF centre in “Dumpsite” Irisan- Baguio, North Luzon. 

All foreign nationals were given a 72-hour window to leave the country. I didn’t really want to leave. It felt like my work in the Philippines wasn’t done. We had so many other projects in the pipeline. School uniforms, shoes, hats… But sadly I didn’t have a choice.

After hours spent trying to get a last minute flight on a terrible internet connection I then had the challenge of finding a way to get to the airport. Public transport had stopped overnight. No buses. Not even taxis or private vehicles for hire.

Finally, we managed to get in touch with the local tourism department and they gave me 30 minutes to get to the city hall. Luckily my bags were already packed. With a handful of other foreign nationals, I got escorted to Manila airport. What should have been a 4-hour drive took 9 hours with 5 temperature checkpoints and massive queues along the way.

Lockdown in the Philippines has been strict. Struggling families are even worse off now. They are only allowed out one day a week. Most families have had any chance of earning an income totally taken away from them. We are grateful that there are some nanays who have mask-making skills enabling them to go out on their day to the market, sell some masks and make some money for groceries. Strangely Taal Volcano‘s ash cloud had a silver lining and had prepared us for what was to come.  I know they are very grateful for the skill-sharing which enables them to sell direct. Purple Community Fund also continues to buy masks from them and distributes to those in need.

Many of PCF’s beneficiaries live in, on and are surrounded by waste. Not their waste- other people’s waste. Half of the community sort recyclables all day, every day.

Even the food waste from fast-food restaurants is “recycled” refried and sold. Its called pagpag and people eat it because it’s cheap. In Barangay 105, survival is a constant battle.

Every so often there’s a fire. Usually a result of working with plastic and heat in cramped conditions. Last month, a big fire meant over 1000 people had to be put in emergency housing by the charity with no government help whatsoever. Families are familiar with losing the little they have. They are resilient, positive and creative in the face of constant change. They know that life is as flimsy as the walls of their makeshift homes and rebuilding is part of staying alive…