Uniquease

Pronounced as “unique kasi,” this is a social enterprise set up with the assistance of Ms. Yachiyo Nakamura together with the youth of Payatas, better known to everyone else as “Smokey Mountain.”

 That is the name of the dumpsite in Quezon City that the poor have made their home, their community. The smoke from the gases produced by the huge volume of collected garbage of Metro Manila has given the place, the community, the residents their label.

 More than Payatas, the world knows the place as Smokey Mountain, a place that should not have been there if only everyone responsibly managed their waste. A community, in turn, would not have been created had more politicians given the poor more serious attention, more sincere service.

 But reality is reality. Smokey Mountain is a very good reminder of how the Filipinos have been neglected or have been treated by their politicians and their fellow Filipinos. Rather that systematically and responsibly managing their own waste at home, most would rather throw these, together with still recyclable, usable items. Without segregating, waste becomes useless, smelly, risky for people and nature as well as costly for everyone.

 Left with almost nothing, the poor have learned to find their food, their livelihood from waste. Without a place to reside, many poor have also found their homes and their community within the mountain of smoke and waste.

 Children in Payatas have turned to collecting recyclables from the mountain of garbage. Working children and Payatas, child labor, specifically, scavengers or waste pickers have often been associated with Smokey Mountain.

 Claude, Beth, Ramon, and Norilyn, who were brought to Japan and to our university, Toyo University, yesterday, to share about UNIQUEASE, their own social enterprise, proudly introduced themselves as residents of Payatas. First, they shared what they have done beyond Payatas, how they have gone beyond their past and how they are overcoming their ongoing trials by helping mold a better future for themselves and their families through their collaborative efforts.

 Former children of Payatas who had to struggle to find food on a daily basis, now they are part of UNIQUEASE and all helping to manage and run a restaurant café located in Jupiter Street corner Mars Street in Bel-air, Makati City. A number of them have benefitted from the kind assistance of NGOs, foundations and churches that served the people of Payatas. After graduating from high school (with much struggle), they now want to give back to Payatas the same training, the same kindness, and the opportunities afforded them by kind and generous partners and benefactors.

 They explained to their foreign audience made up of Japanese students and teachers and a Canadian Professor how they started to create their own future and how they established UNIQUEASE, their own self-made social enterprise, guided by Yachiyo-an and some kind partners.

 Aside from the restaurant café that serves healthy meals, they have also resorted to producing their own products like rice coffee, peanut butter, guava jam, chocolate, yemas or distributing products produced by other NGOs through fair trade networks.

 They were asked what their dreams are by one young Japanese female student. “Like everyone else, those of us in Payatas also have dreams. But many of us in Payatas know that fulfilling dreams is our problem,” Ramon said. He himself earlier dreamt of becoming a doctor or a pharmacist but he said he had to get real. He knew that it was impossible for one from Payatas to be a doctor, to be a pharmacist.

 “Many job opportunities are lost, many doors close when the interviewers find out we are from Payatas,” Claude shared. Still, they are not giving up. Through UNIQUEASE, they have been challenged to grow up realizing that their world can grow beyond Payatas, that they can create their own future and that they do not have to be limited by their past.

 Those in and from Payatas and Smokey Mountain may be stigmatized and labeled by society both locally and globally. But Claude, Beth, Ramon and Norilyn know, from their own experience, that there is a wider world and a future awaiting everyone beyond Payatas.  They are eager to reach out with those who think everyone deserves a better future. You can contact them through UNIQUEASE, through Ms. Yachiyo at [email protected] or at (02) 519-6406.

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Email: [email protected]