Meet Xilca Alvarez, lawyer turned Gawad Kalinga (GK) social entrepreneur.

Meet Xilca Alvarez, lawyer turned Gawad Kalinga (GK) social entrepreneur.

Meet Xilca Alvarez, lawyer turned Gawad Kalinga (GK) social entrepreneur.Xilca is the lady behind the award-winning Gourmet Keso and Cafe de Sug Sulu Coffee.

 

My dream for the Philippines: For every Filipino to be proud of being born and raised here because everyone sees how this is the most beautiful country!

GK Enchanted Farm, Angat, Bulacan: Its gradual transformation from a barren land to a place so productive, beautiful and soon to be very visited is just so inspiring! The sheer idea of how many more idle lands we can transform into enchanted farms all over the country is just mindblowing! I'm so inspired by it that I've decided to get married there!

My reading list: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, this 19th century novel on social injustice resonated with me and made me perennially root for the underdog and the oppressed. Builder of Dreams by Tony Meloto who actually did something about modern-day social injustice.

 

 

 

... our cheesemaker, Maricel Valderama. She's one of the hardest working mothers I've ever met. On top of making excellent cheese, she looks after her 4 kids, does the laundry, cooks, cleans the house, and at the end of the day, still has a smile on her face.
Before, she had to walk several miles under the scorching heat with two suckling babies in tow just to sell her vegetables for a pittance. She inspires me not to give up when I feel like throwing in the towel.

...our foreign interns. Clarisse Simmoneau, for instance, who's an incredibly beautiful, talented graphic designer who volunteered all her services while with GK and has come back to do more! Meeting people like her, it's shameful to see these foreigners love our country, especially the poor, more than Filipinos ever could.

... the relentless GK workers. Ate Jainab Abdulmajid, Area Coordinator of Sulu, reinforced the belief that we can brew peace in the South if we can just create more livelihood opportunities. She gives part of her allowance so that she can get preschool teachers to serve the GK Sibol preschoolers.

She inspires me to donate 20% of our profits from Cafe de Sug Sulu Coffee to the preschool teachers' allowance because of the multiplier effect on children whose young minds we can still shape and rehabilitate from the trauma of a war-torn society they were unfortunately born into.