About Us
Our work is fueled by the passion and dedication of our volunteers and local citizens in their communities, who provided their time and resources to help us implement key actions. Aside from being efficient and cost-effective, they can easily be mobilized, especially when natural disaster strike, which is becoming more frequent as the impact of climate change is now felt. We hope to contribute to mitigating climate change with our initiatives, and we are gearing up for more work ahead.
Elmer Velasco Sayre
Executive Director
Dr. Sayre’s work experience is varied and includes being an agriculture extension worker, a college teacher, a local consultant and an NGO adviser. He implements initiatives related to water system development, biodiversity, agro-forestry, and ecological sanitation, promoting a culture of peace, micro-financing and rural organizing with an emphasis on the poor mainly in Mindanao, the Philippines. His field experience spans more than 30 years already. His initiatives have won much recognition, including an award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenges Explorations in Global Health for his work on ecological sanitation. He was an Endeavour Leadership Fellow in Australia in 2007, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Bellagio, Italy, in 2010 and an Asia Leadership Fellow in Tokyo, Japan. Aside from his work with the WAND, he holds also advisory role, most notably with a women’s association called Women’s Action Against Climate Change Association (WAACCA). He has published manuals on community-based seedling nurseries and tree planting and on promoting a culture of peace in Mindanao, as well as a book on ecological sanitation. He is also a published poet and short-story writer.