Giving Manila’s most vulnerable communities a safe place to live while developing hives of sustainable, income-generating social business activity

There is a growing crisis in the Philippine’s social housing sector. Currently there are 1.5 million informal settler families (ISF) in Metro Manila many live in overcrowded and dangerous slums. To solve the problem, the government has approved financing the construction of low-income housing developments. Though positive, big challenges still remain in managing the estates and growing sustainable livelihood programmes and economic opportunities within these new communities. Our team has designed a strategy to develop social businesses within these developments, led by locals, to build sustainable economies within their housing developments through the power of social business. Projects include microlending to small business owners, community markets, financial literacy training and more opportunities.