Air Asia

Company Name: Air Asia

Company Owner: Marianne Hontiveros

Company Address: NAIA Terminal 4 Domestic Road, Pasay City

Official Contact #: +632 722 2742

Company Website: https://www.airasia.com

Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/airasiaph/?brand_redir=18801397386

Company E-mail: clientsupport@airasia.com

Product/ Services: Travel Services

Corporate Social Responsibility

Balay Balay Architecture Puzzles

Social Enterprise

Balay Balay (playhouse in Bisaya language) aims to document traditional Mindanao architectural styles and raise awareness of these vernacular structures among the younger generation by creating small scale puzzles of local tribal houses. Its first replica design is of the Torogan, the stately house typically used by the elite of the Maranao ethnic group in the province of Lanao del Sur in Mindanao, Philippines.

In 2008, the National Museum of the Philippines declared the Maranao Torogan as a National Cultural Treasure, heralded as the “last standing example of the finest of traditional vernacular architecture of the Philippines”.

To produce these puzzles, Balay Balay employs local artisans from various tribes in Mindanao and encourages members to play a part in documenting this aspect of their traditional culture. The social enterprise began working with members of the Ata tribe of Paquibato and the Manguanggan tribe of Davao del Norte to learn more about their vernacular houses. As part of its commitment to sustainability, Balay Balay has begun using engineered bamboo as an alternative material to further improve the quality of the replicas, making them more lightweight and consistent with the actual look of the tribal houses.

The wooden puzzle workshops provide much needed skills to enable indigenous communities into preserving their heritage, while at the same time improving their income potential through Balay Balay’s livelihood programme that teaches them how to run community enterprises.

AirAsia Foundation has awarded the social enterprise with a grant to

1. Purchase additional equipment and tools to increase production of wooden puzzles to meet rising demand

2. Develop untapped trade skills among indigenous communities through puzzle workshops

Train indigenous community members in carpentry and painting to increase employability

Tsaa Laya Premium Teas

Challenge

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, the Philippines is ranked as the country most affected by climate change. Among the most vulnerable are informal settlers in Metro Manila, some of whom had to be relocated to public housing areas in the countryside after their homes were destroyed by storms and typhoons.

For affected families, although their shelter needs are provided for under the resettlement scheme, they also have to contend with losing their livelihoods, primarily women who have to remain at home to care for their children while their husbands return to the city in search of employment. Prolonged separation has further contributed to the disintegration of the family unit, leaving unemployed mothers to raise their children alone.

Meanwhile, in the mountainous regions of the Ifugao region, the Philippines’ famous Unesco World Heritage-listed Banaue Rice Terraces are also under threat as indigenous communities whose ancestors created these wonders, face their biggest challenge yet in maintaining these terraces and their heritage rice farming practices. Income pressures have left some indigenous families with little choice but to abandon their ancestral terraces.

Social Enterprise

Kapwa Greens trains and employs mothers at the Calauan Resettlement in Laguna and indigenous communities in the Ifugao region of the Philippines to cultivate high quality local herbs as a way of earning a living wage. Founder Jamir Ocampo began by engaging unemployed mothers at the Calauan Resettlement to cultivate herbal plants. This later expanded to include the full tea production chain from harvesting to handcrafting its Tsaa Laya’s signature herbal tea blends.

While sourcing for unique tea accents, Kapwa Greens also began working with two indigenous people’s communities in the Ifugao and Sagada regions of northern Luzon. The tea livelihoods provide much needed supplementary income for these remote communities, easing the pressure for indigenous peoples to abandon traditional rice farming for low-skilled jobs in the city.

Tsaa Laya teas are now sold at multiple outlets in the Philippines, as well as at AirAsia Foundation’s Destination GOOD shop on rokki.com and onboard AirAsia Philippines flights. However, due to limited production capacity, Kapwa Greens is having difficulty addressing additional export orders for Tsaa Laya teas.

To support the growing business, Kapwa Greens receives funding from AirAsia Foundation to

1. Establish a tea farmers’ cooperative

2. Provide technical training in good manufacturing practices, food safety, organic farming and agri-tourism, IT-based communication, business management and resource mobilisation, product development and innovation

3. Procure of additional machines and facilities to improve production output, i.e. dehydration room, nursery, moisture analyser, and herb cutters

4. Test new markets and innovate products