An organization established schools to hone the skills and knowledge of children on creating climate solutions based on the culture of their community. Tayo co-founder Natasha Tanjutco stated that their Schools of Culture and Creativity were now teaching the children to protect biodiversity in their own cultural ways. “This idea of not exoticizing it as something very different and unique, but also highlighting the biodiversity and respecting their unique cultures at the same time,” she said during a panel discussion in the Design Week Philippines 2024.
The celebration aimed to strengthen the Filipinos’ appreciation for the culture through integrating their creativity into crafts and innovations. Tanjutco said that the children in Halian Island in Surigao del Norte, where they built their school about four years ago, were already initiating efforts to save the environment, such as doing coastal clean-ups and planting coral reefs. The co-founder explained that the coral reefs on Halian Island protected the communities from the devastation of Typhoon Odette in 2021.
She added that the communities thrived with their own solutions to the climate crisis, like protecting the coral reefs in their area. According to her, the non-governmental organizations should support the communities in their own ways of solving environmental issues rather than their interference. Tanjutco emphasized the need for an intergenerational conversation about the climate crisis that would reach the .
