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.

Meet our Founder and Executive Director,

Cora Sayre

Humanitarian, human rights champion, politician, inventor

Sayre is co-founder and executive director of the Water, Agroforestry, Nutrition, and Development (WAND) Foundation, known for leading-edge innovations in the arena of water, sanitation, and small-scale agriculture. She is also a graduate of the 1996 Diploma program at Coady Institute. Her excitement about the program rubbed off on two other family members — brother-in-law Cesario and son Jed Christian, both of whom are now part of the Coady alumni family!

When Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, killing more than 10,000 people, the Sayre family and the WAND Foundation were at the forefront in disaster response with their award-winning water, sanitation and food security initiatives and remain involved in the recovery today.

Among the Foundation’s earlier awards: Cora was honored as a Laureate of the Tech Awards in California, which honor innovators around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity; a national human rights award in 2009 for their work with small-scale farmers; winner of an international development competition in Israel (2006); and a World Bank-sponsored award for development innovation (2004).

Cora holds a Bachelor’s degree from Xavier University in the Philippines and is currently working towards a Master’s in Extension Administration from Silliman University. Apart from her studies at Coady, Cora has along attended international programs in the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Israel, Sweden, and India.

Our Mission

  • Empowerment of marginal farmers, especially the youth, by implementing an integrated program of water, agro-forestry, health and sanitation support, nutrition, and community organizing.
  • Capacity-building, local leadership development, and gender and development cuts across our initiatives.

Our main goal is for these families to live dignified lives, fully participating in the life of the community by improving their overall social and economic situation.