People's Plan, God's Will: The APOAMF’s Journey towards a Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Housing/Ang Kwent@ ng APOAMF tungo sa Likas-Kaya at Angkop-Klimang Pabahay (UPWARD)

This hybrid-panel discussion with a short film-showing narrates how a Pasig community ravaged by Ondoy in 2009 triumphed to build a more sustainable and climate in-city housing. The people organized themselves as the Alliance of Peoples’ Organization along the Manggahan Floodway (APOAMF) and with support from the Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) and other non-government organizations, the civil society including the academe, and the government, were able to forge the People's Plan. This fruitful dialogue between the community, professionals, and policy-makers resulted in the Low-Rise Building (LRB), a more climate-resilient housing program and a community that continuously advocates for a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable community. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2022, the VLIR-UOS-funded project Urban Poor Women and Children with Academics for Reaching and Delivering on UNSDGs in the Philippines (UPWARD UP) assisted the APOAMF community through citizen journalism to document their local-national efforts at attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, esp. no poverty (1), good health and well-being (3), quality education (4), gender equality (5), and peace, justice, and strong institutions (16). A brief response and activity from the lens of theology and ecological migration will integrate the dialogue between the guests and participants. Organized by Urban Poor Women and Children with Academics for Reaching and Delivering on UNSDGs in the Philippines (UPWARD UP).