Manila Highlight Report / back to work

So back at work today and being asked what were the highlights from the past month and obviously it's difficult to say.

Just to clarify the trip was funded by the Rotary Foundation and intended to be an opportunity for us to experience our vocation in a different culture so we can bring back learning to our current jobs.

I have to say that when I left I was doubtful about how this would work. I wasn't convinced that a quick whirlwind 'sightseeing' tour of Filipino housing would give me any insight into what I do at home or give me a real understanding of their working environment. But whilst I don't claim to have a comprehensive understanding of their systems or the challenges they face I do feel like I've learnt a lot from the experience.

Firstly that I'm a terrible vegetarian. Faced with a choice of a month of refusing food and only eating rice and soy sauce I quickly embraced eating everything from bone marrow to balut. Balut for those that don't know is a hard boiled egg containing a duck foetus. I didn't eat any head.

But work wise it was more a matter of inspiration. Seeing how things can be done differently and work well.

Communications was given a real value by all the organisations we spoke to. It was recognised as being integral to employee engagement, customer engagement and raising the public profile of the organisation.

If I said to someone in the UK I was  going to see the Highways Agency I doubt the first thing they'd do would be to tell me how great the new Highways Agency app was or how their Twitter account had a great sense of humour. But that's exactly what happened when I said I was going to see the Filipino equivalent.

Customer engagement is something we place a lot of emphasis on. I didn't expect to see it when informal settlers were being moved off sites where they were in danger of losing their lives through fire or flood. Housing authorities gave people options about where to go, managed expectations and provided livelihood training to ensure that when they moved they weren't destitute. Through these initiatives good communications supported by effective strategies paved the way for stronger communities. In some schemes they also teach hope, teach people that they have the capacity to change their own lives.

Someone told me the Philippines is the country with the highest risk of natural disaster in the world. Perhaps the importance they place on comms comes in part from the reliance they have on these channels in case of emergency. Effective early warning and evacuation has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in some situations.

Capacity building was raised by every organisation. It was recognised that the resource wouldn't be there to help everyone. So children are taught at school to spot TB symptoms, the Red Cross have mass first aid training programs and those who can't pay fines for misdameanours are made to attend disaster preparedness training.

Although I'm not in any way qualified to comment on our benefits system, how it works or its possible failings I believe we are lucky to have it. We're lucky that we don't have hundreds of thousands of people living below the poverty line ($1.25/day) and that people generally get help when they need it. We don't help ourselves sometimes because we know we don't have to.

We're not just dependent in terms of housing and benefit provision but the simple ability to rely on the emergency services and the NHS. The capacity building was inspirational, uplifting and positive but it's hard to see how to translate this to my work or that of Bolton at Home.

Some of the most successful capacity building schemes were around vocational training and providing a means to work to support the housing provision but in our communities this would be almost impossible to implement. For their communities participating in these schemes mean the difference between their family starving or not. Without that kind of incentive I don't know how successful they would be. Given the cost of living and the level of income required simply giving people in our communities sewing machines wouldn't work.

So it was pretty depressing returning to work. Meeting so many people who believed so wholeheartedly in their work makes you question the impact you have. But I also don't believe you should complain about something unless you have a solution which I'm not professing to have for the bigger issues. I do think I can maybe take some of this to encourage me work harder at what I do, at inspiring our staff and customers to communicate better and participate in conversations not only nationally but within their community.

In the midst of this little downer on the whole situation I saw on our social media a message encouraging people with business ideas to get in touch with an organisation offering funding to support them and that customers are beginning to really make use of Bolton at Home's social media channels.

And noone tried to feed me any baby animals.

Visit to the Red Cross

A visit to Quezon City’s Chapter of the Philippine Red Cross involved another serious conference setting and a presentation including all their volunteers dressed up in uniform. Kindly arranged by a Rotarian I met at one of the meetings a long presentation didn’t even begin to cover the amazing work they do in the Philippines.

I think sometimes we forget in the UK how spoilt we are. If we have an emergency, a fire or a car accident we call the emergency services and know they will come. In Manila that might not be the case. While the Chairmen wasn’t critical of the government provision of emergency service it was clear that these were not meeting the need and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) were filling in the gap.

In addition to the services that are remarkably similar to the British Red Cross (BRC) in terms of support for the homeless, first aid training and family tracing to name a few, there is also an additional massive scope to their work in Manila. As well as the disaster relief, a vital service with the Philippines being the top most disaster prone country, there is massive work in capacity building for communities as well as filling in for the emergency services. If this wasn’t impressive enough the fact that there are almost no paid staff and this work is carried out by volunteers should do it.

Although they do have an emergency number and a call centre is manned 27/7 they are also called out by the Philippine National Police when they attend emergencies. But the main point of contact with the public is through their astonishingly comprehensive network of volunteers. Ambulances, dinghys and fire engines are donated by their supporters.

Recognising that the usual support systems we rely on in the UK might not be available or affordable to most of the population the PRC, like the MMDA and other organisations we’ve seen focus on training people to help themselves in an emergency. Thousands of members of the public are trained in not only first aid but disaster preparedness an water rescue and they have a great volunteer retention rate with the volunteers around the table averaging a seven year involvement.

Each chapter fundraises and is given a target and a budget. Quezon City’s is 65m pesos and they regularly exceed fundraising expectations. Each chapter has its own board of trustees and paid staff and the national PRC sits over the top with its own board. Interestingly this board includes 6 representatives appointed by the president perhaps representing the key role the organisation plays in the country. However the staff we spoke to were keen to assure that they didn’t see this as compromising the independence of the organisation as with them representing only 20% these six could not have a majority vote.

Following the visit to the Quezon City Chapter we were lucky enough to be able to visit the national headquarters where after the rest of the group made it clear my list of questions was too long the briefing session was cut short and we went for a look at their monitoring centre where everything from the levels of La Mesa Dam to the levels of deportees from Saba. All this work is done on simple excel spreadsheets regularly updated by staff.

To put into context the severity of the risk the PRC are facing an overflow at La Mesa Dam could kill two million people if evacuation is not quick enough. 

Like most organisations we’ve seen whilst we’re here this type of risk gives so much more significance to their work. With so few resources the work done here is stunning and I’ve written in previous posts really simple, practical economic solutions go so far to mitigating these risks.

Following my donations

It’s not often you get to know how the money you donate to charity is actually spent but today I was able to meet Jun Perez, President of SEED Finance, the Filipino partner of Lendwithcare. I’ve always thought the whole concept of Lendwithcare is fantastic and was keen to find out more about how the scheme actually operates on the ground.

I didn’t think when I emailed the general email address that they’d actually be able to arrange the visit but within a couple of days they’d put me in touch with Jun. It’s always a concern that when you learn more about an organisation you find out about the issues and problems but nothing was further from the truth with SEED Finance. At the risk that I’m beginning to sound like this is written by their PR company I can assure you that I’m fairly cynical generally and have this week been accused of cross examining the Chairmen of the Quezon City Red Cross in a manner that was apparently more like an interrogation than a Q&A session.

So at the SEED offices we were shown to the small meeting room and given a history of their involvement with CARE International. Jun was friendly, well informed and enthusiastic as well as keen to talk about their work. Photos on the wall have the caption ‘Micro no more’ underneath and a map has pins showing their coverage of the country.

For anyone else who lends with Lendwithcare I can assure you from what I’ve heard your money is being well spent. The individuals we see on the website are all members of co-operatives in the provinces and this is how their loans are administered. Jun made it clear that their loans were not the cheapest in the market but that they offer an extensive support service that extends beyond the loans themselves. This includes technical assistance and training so not only are the loans protected but a sustainable business is created. It seems like these measures are helping contribute to their 97% overall repayment rate, up 57%.

Loans are targeted in the most deprived regions and in places where mainstream banking is difficult to access. Practicalities such as having to get a boat to another island can mean entrepreneurs have to take time away from their business to carry out simple administrative tasks. Mobile banking has been utilised incredibly effectively to address this issue and people can now order supplies, pay utility bills and send money to kid overseas all through their mobile phone and the co-op money card. This is backed my Mastercard and linked to their phone account.

Having introduced this scheme in a fishing village a complaint was made by an entrepreneur that he was unable to access his money one weekend when the cash desk was closed and the ATM wasn’t working. SEED and the co-operative decided to address this by installing mobile card swipe machines in small businesses on the island. This meant there was no need for people to withdraw cash in order to buy materials for their business. Simple solutions like this and utilising the latest technology mean are great for making the lives of the beneficiaries easier and allowing them to maximise productivity.

Another example of this is how it allows the organisation itself to work more efficiently. At a conference a request was made for funds for a co-op to Jun. He text someone in the office, they made the necessary approvals and the money was available in around 2 hours.

The governance of the organisation reflects the client focus and on the Executive Committee two out of the five members represent clients. There is regular dialogue with area, regional and national conferences to share ideas and best practice.

One of the clever engagement tools used by Lendwithcare is the updates from the entrepreneurs. Being of a sceptical nature I’m not sure I quite believed before that these were so accurate as to be about your money. Having heard about their systems and the fact that each beneficiary is visited monthly I’ll now be much more interested in these updates.

Currently only 5% of their income is from individuals with the majority of investment coming from companies. I know after visiting SEED I’ll be happy to put more money in and be confident it’s being well spent.

Printing, waste management and kids. Just another day at the office

Our final ‘proper’ day starts with a trip to a publishing company owned by one of the members of our host club and an introduction to their integrated approach from printing the books to training the teachers. The visit included our shortest drive yet – the previous record was set driving across the street – maybe 70 yards. This was into the van, out of the gate and into the gate next door. To the same building.

Next in true  varied form it was off to the city dump for some briefings.

Its easy to think that waste management might not be that interesting but as with all these visits once someone starts talking we suddenly become fascinated with the talk. Work on the site began after 250 people were killed in trash slide 11 years ago. The city council got involved and engineering solutions were put in place to ensure this wouldn’t be repeated. As with every initiative here the work being carried out is founded on extreme necessity and the risk of loss of human life giving each project an urgency that might not be found elsewhere.

Despite this there are ambitious plans for the future taking the project forward and including incorporating the government tree planting programme, an eco park and a housing scheme.

A large proportion of the waste is processed by hand with 490 trucks a day coming into the plant from around Quezon City. 8 groups of 75 scavengers  go through the waste sorting for reusable or recyclable materials. The workers are not paid and instead split the income from the materials that are sold from their work.

A savings scheme endorsed by the government is a rack of tiny piggy banks where once a week workers put in 15 pesos or more if they can afford.

Another income generator is the refuse derived fuel produced from the organic waste. James from Harrogate showed us round the plant in which the material is autosegmented before the metal is manually picked out. Organic waste is then baled and sold as fuel for use in place of fossil fuels. When James arrived in August last year the plant was non existent and has been designed, built and made operational in this time in an indication of how quickly things move here.

Similarly the Biogas project began 2008 and now has 90 gas wells over the site producing electricity for 3500 families and generating income for the city.

Although this is a government project there is still a CSR angle. This covers all the key areas and is delivered in partnership with their private sector partner. As with most we’ve seen so far there is a holistic approach covering education, livelihoods, housing and disaster management as well as healthcare and nutrition through the Patayas Poverty Alleviation Foundation.  

Welding courses are offered with employment opportunities with the private secor partner after completion and ‘jumpers’, the kids that climb onto rubbish trucks looking for things to sell have been organised into a football team to get them off the streets.

Another massive lunch and then onto a feeding programme (ironically) where the Rotary club hosting us have created a community corps with resident to create a partnership and feed the local children. Having picked up some tricks from the Aussies we took along sweets, pens, chalk and bubbles and were mobbed by the children once they realised what we had. After some awkward conversation where I tried miming to the kids and writing and drawing in chalk on the pavement they revealed they actually spoke perfect English and I think were laughing at me a little. Or a lot. Basically at four they can speak two languages and I couldn’t even remember the Tagalog word for pretty. 

Leadership skills and a month to remember

I’m not sure how it comes across in the blog but as well as being fantastic this trip has been bizarre. Simple things like staying in other people’s homes, spending massive amounts of time with team mates you’ve just met and having your photo taken about 100 times a day all contribute to this. It’s been great having the Aussie team around and meeting people here who’ve also done GSE and understand how intense it is.

The Australian team is on a slightly different programme and are called a Vocational Training Team rather than a Group Study Exchange team. They are all teachers and have had a more vocational focus including delivering workshops and sharing knowledge as well as the cultural aspects. It’s been really interesting to get to know them and see how they work as a team under their team leader Jacqui.

I seem to remember that part of this trip was about developing as leaders and watching how Jacqui has led their team has been really interesting. Being a bit bossy and a bit of a control freak it’s been great to observe such good leadership. From my perspective Jacqui has completely got the difference between leading a team and managing one. The team as a whole have a fantastic relationship and are close with them providing support to her as well as vice versa. It seems that respect built up between her and the team members has provided a great base for her to be able to lead effectively.

It would be easy in this stressful and alien situation to be issuing orders to get the team to do things but Jacqui has a great knack for just giving people the option to do the right thing. For example on the way up to Baguio not all the car seats had seatbelts as people often don’t bother with them here. Instead of telling her team they had to buckle up she just quietly arranged for them to get seats with belts available so they had the option should they want to.

Another example of the respect afforded to her team members is in her assumption that they will do the right thing. In Boracay we were on a night out and Kerrin went to let her know she was off to find a ‘comfort room’. Rather than lecturing her about not going off on her own or telling her to take someone with her she assumed that Kerrin would already have thought of this and that because I was standing nearby I’d be going with her (which I was).

There is some assumption on this trip that on our return we might join Rotary and some people we’ve had contact with have made us feel obliged to do so. Although clearly committed to Rotary and their work Jacqui has reassured us that this is not the aim of the trip and we shouldn’t feel under any pressure. She also allowed us and her own team space to not have to take Rotary so seriously even extending to the slightly drunken ‘Rotary meeting’ held on the beach in the dark complete with fake bell ‘dinging’ the meeting to order.

On this trip we are chaperoned pretty much 27/7 and it would be tempting as team leader to treat us like children on a school trip. Jacqui’s leadership is so effective in keeping her team on track and ultimately safe and I hope I can take back what I’ve learned from her and apply it at home. 

Big presentation and the governor's ball

The day of the big presentation dawned and I went down to the conference centre to catch the Aussie’s 9am slot. As always they gave an impressive performance although with it being their last day this had a sadder element than normal with the sections on their highlights drawing tears from three of the five team members.

Having sussed the logistics and picked up some tips for our own slot later in the day I headed back to the hotel for some finishing touches which turned out to be a complete rewrite as the WiFi failed to let us download Prezi at the last minute.

Blazers on and back to the auditorium for our slot. Excited by our surprise finale we scanned the audience for people we knew. The presentation went almost exactly to plan but sadly our final video – worked on until the early hours of the morning failed to play correctly. Luckily the audience didn’t know that we’d spent hours making the footage in time with the music and enjoyed it anyway.

Our first free time was unfortunately spent in a fruitless search for Dan’s iPhone before it was time to get ready for the ball.

Some faffing, photo taking and stops at the off licence made us pretty late an awkwardly there didn’t seem to be a table for us. However one was hastily put together and we made attempts to disguise the excessive amounts of wine by hiding half the bottles under the table. It being the Aussie’s last night we snuck out to get some group pictures taken of the 10 of us and get a final Gangnam filming in. Duties over it was back into the ball for some final ‘fellowship’.

As always entertainment was provided and it was lovely to spend time with my first host family, Dennis and Karen and also to see Dennis take part in the performance with his classmates. Never people to leave a party early we were the last to leave with our hosts from the first week, Camp Crame. It seems difficult to believe that a month ago we’d never even met these people and as it was when the Aussie’s left it will be sad to leave them. 

International relations and 'inspirational' speakers

Discon 2013 got off to an unexpectedly exciting start with a parade of various groups of Rotarians led in by men wearing traditional dress consisting of a piece of cloth barely covering their crotch and not covering their bums.

Concerned that we didn’t have enough time to have finished our presentation for the next day we were anxious to leave and get on with our work. After watching a lively dance display the urge to leave was increased by the guest speaker Dr Carl. His ‘inspirational’ speech was nothing of the kind and included some bady put together pneumonics.

The final insult was in his reference to Kristel Tejada a student at a Manila University who committed suicide due to being unable to afford her tuition fees. He used her death to illustrate his point on ‘Tenacity of Purpose’ – apparently she didn’t have any. Given how recent her death was and the likelihood that someone in the three hundred people watching knew her it seemed at the very least insensitive and at worst arrogant and condescending.

To give him the benefit of the doubt I will concede that I can’t confirm he didn’t know her and her family and have sought their permission to discuss her in this way. But I’m guessing he didn’t.

Anyway we were rescued by Dan and taken to see Sally and Homer on the family stall. After dressing up in some more traditional dress for a photo opportunity (over our suits) we had a quick break for some games before dutifully heading back to the hotel to finish our work.

Presentation almost completed it was a quick change and back out to the first fellowship event an ‘international evening’.  Held in a marquee behind the conference centre the ‘international’ element was in the form of fancy dress with clubs having a theme and a parade for best costume. The event got off to a shaky start when it was beginning to look like there was no bar. A quick surveillance exercise revealed that ironically the table dressed as Arabs were the only ones drinking wine.

Entertainment followed the parade and the Aussie team performed the coconut dance and held an auction to raise money for the district’s End Polio Now fund. Not wanting to be outdone we got up for some Zumba and with Natalie in the lead and her three uncoordinated back up dancers doing their best to keep up we led the room in some Zumba.

We were rescued from our ‘dry spell’ when one of the guys we’d been drinking with in Boracay with invited us to his table for some whiskey and soon the evening got into full swing as we caught up with people we’d met over the last three weeks and showed how Brits and Aussies can hold their own on the dance floor. Assuming that they consider enthusiasm to mean more than rhythm.

As my team mates went home early I stayed out with the Aussies and carried on the drinking with a nightcap with Steale at the piano bar in the hotel next door. Heading back to the hotel my knocking failed to wake Natalie and I had to seek the help of the night porter who showed massive concern at my having bare feet. He showed visible relief when we got to the bedroom door where I’d left my heels but sadly couldn’t open the door with any of his keycards. It took quite a bit more time before finally I was able to get in and get to bed.

Off to Baguio and a defeat for Dan's van

After the heat of Manila we're off to Baguio for the district conference. After some logistics by Dan G (our co-ordinator) and an extended breakfast in McDonalds we piled into his van with our luggage for the six hour drive. Always making use of our very scarce spare time we all got out or laptops, iPads and phones to get on with some blogging, photo sharing and work on the presentations.

After some stops for snacks and to use the 'comfort room' along the way we unloaded the extra Aussie team members into alternative transport so we could stretch out and headed for the mountains. The landscape here is spectacular with the steep mountains rising quickly out of the flat flat fields. As we'd all had a quick nap the sight of the mountains increased the enthusiasm although the 'cold' weather had not yet showed itself.

The mountain roads proved challenging to the van and despite a stirling effort it finally gave up and broke down  9km from Baguio. Luckily it chose a picturesque spot which handily had a snack stop and a store selling furniture which was an ideal place to have a light lunch (probably a snack by Filipino standards) provided by Marby, Natalie's host. As Dan G and the driver poured water into the overheated engine we made some attempts to befriend the child sorting runner beans and a younger observer. Sharing our lunch with them didn't seem to work neither did playing peekaboo or our attempts at Tagalog. Dan G explained that they didn't speak Tagalog (possibly why that wasn't  working) and that they were part of the indigenous population.

After our impromptu picnic the other van came to pick us up and we 'negotiated' Baguio's complex one way system with some complex moves including a three point term on a two lane one way street and some indecisiveness at a sign saying 'Turn right only' which involved a little reversing. The narrative throughout the journey was about the lack of a comprehensive driving test or licencing system in the Philippines and the possibility of paying for your licence if you fail the test. We also encountered what we thought to be our first roundabout - I hope it wasn't as we went round it the wrong way...

Instead of arriving at the hotel as we were expected we were delivered to a 50's diner for some mango shakes and confusion over transport arrangements with the Aussie team. Not wanting to miss out on the new 'set' we did some quick filming much to the amusement of the staff.

Arriving at the hotel the cooler weather made an appearance although our bags did not for some time. Always working hard we began filming and work on our presentation and worked long into the night albeit with a few beers to keep us company.

Special action forces and cheese

A change of pace today from housing to the Special Action Forces (SAF). Natalie and I got in a jeep driven by two uniformed police officers making us feel like celebrities and set off on the long trip the Philippine National Police camp where the SAF are based.

I don’t know whether it was our uniformed escorts but we were admitted to the camp with no checking of our identities or bags. There’s a law here making joking about terrorism an offence but it is difficult not to at times. The presentation on their work was a bit overwhelming for someone who knows very little about the SAS at home. Again the questions were tricky as we were presented with an impressive array of uniformed officers but thanks to Dan and Natalie we managed a good showing before getting off to some presentations of their skills.

First presentation slightly uncomfortable with some serious guns displayed on a table including a grenade launcher and some machine guns. Although it’s really interesting it’s easy to forget what these are actually used for and the situations that these people face in their routine work. It’s also difficult to forget some of the human rights issues I’ve heard discussed around the PNP and their practice although this seems ungrateful to the people who are giving up their time to show us around.             

 Next was the explosive sniffing dogs, their first ‘trick’ was finding the explosives under plant pots. To ensure a fair test the dog was taken away whilst the little pot (probably of actual explosive here!) was hidden. The dog was quick and efficient but even more impressive was the trick where he was able to pick out the pot that had had the explosive in it previously.

On to the unit shows and a great effort with a tank on show and two units in full uniform standing in the baking sun. Each team member introduced themselves and their roles – one of which seemed to mainly involve wearing an outfit resembling leaves. He seemed a bit bashful – I don’t know if they have to draw straws or something to decide who gets this position. Getting in next to them for the photos I asked one of them whether his assault rifle was loaded. He nodded smiled and encouraged me to stand closer. When he turned his back I did quietly step back a step away from the muzzle whilst the pictures were taken.

Photos taken with the tank and then off to the shooting range where they’d discussed letting us shoot all manner of weapons making me really nervous. Having never been to a shooting range before I don’t really have a point of reference but I would say security was lax. Bearing in mind they’d checked no ID there were guns, unloaded but with bullets on the table ready for loading. One alarming moment was when one of the Rotarians we were with picked up an M4 and started pretending to fire. I’m going to pretend she was sure it wasn’t loaded but I’m not sure that’s true.

Having expressed an interest in shooting I decided a handgun was as far as I was going and after no instruction I was pointed towards a target by a guy dressed in gym kit and given 17 shots. After realising I wasn’t going to accidentally shoot myself or anyone else it was quite fun although better if you try not to think about what they’re actually used for.

A quick round of burgers and then back in with our policemen for a trip to an organic farm. One of them Robert, had been on a the return leg of the GSE to the UK and understood how we felt so after showing us some sights told us to get a much needed hours sleep on the drive. At the farm our second lunch was organic  and accompanied by some slightly dubious medical advice. Its common here to not really know what in your food but the fruit salad at the end of the meal had something very strange in it. Waiting for a break in conversation to ask about this new and ‘interesting’ fruit I tried to work out what it was until Dan piped up with ‘Is there cheese in this?’ to which our host replied ‘Yes its organic cheddar’ as if it was completely expected. Getting down to the bottom of the bowl there was something that looked suspiciously like squid. Deciding that might be too much of a surprise I waited to check it was coconut before eating it!

Then off to a local police station where again open access to photograph logs of reported crimes, their paperwork and people in the cells. You haven’t felt uncomfortable until you’ve stood in front of prisoners in cells whilst the custody officer tells you what they’ve done. Basically within touching distance I wasn’t sure how close to get and was picturing the scene in Silence of the Lambs when she’s grabbed through the bars of the cell.

Anyway on from that mixed day to a lovely meal with my amazing host family who I’ve had such a good time with. It makes such a difference being able to come home, chat and feel able to relax and I really appreciated the chance to do this at Jorjie’s house with her family. 

Lessons in social media and community self sufficiency from MMDA

Back to 'reality'after our holiday and weekend off. Well the kind of reality where we get invited to meet the General Manager of the Metro Manila Development Agency in a room that looks more suited to a meeting of the UN. And a brass band meets us at the front door with some Katy Perry covers and Gangnam Style.

The scope of the MMDA (not to be confused with MDMA as this caused much amusement last night with my host family) is quite wide and includes seven key areas or mandates. However over all these areas the most interesting aspect for me is the use of social media. Here the matrix signs point motorists to a Twitter account for traffic updates and in a briefing on their work social media is discussed as a mainstream tool.

Like at Bolton at Home the comms strategy focuses in part on sharing the good work done by staff at the agency and communicating the key issues in a variety of ways to meet the needs of the younger audience As part of the drive to encourage good driver behaviour viral videos of road rage and bad driving are posted onto social media to show the public the kinds of situations the MMDA deal with every day.

In the control room a member of staff sits alongside the camera operators in the navigation sections to tweet congestion updates and suggest alternative routes in a truly integrated way of working. Response time is impressive with my thankyou tweet responded to within the hour and favourited shortly afterwards.

There is a lot of talk in housing about the need for management 'buy in' when implementing a social media strategy and this is more than evident here. During our briefing with some fairly high level operational staff social media was often raised as being key to their communication. Not only raised but discussed in the way that 'experts' do in the UK showing awareness of listening to customers and responding, engaging and responding promptly, creating conversations and trust and most of all having a sense of humour. If Bolton at Home directors could speak like this in a years time I'd be happy to have achieved something in my time there.

An example of the trust placed in the account is people tweeting crime and emergencies. Rather than telling the enquirer to go elsewhere their enquiry is instead passed to the relevant agency. This means they are seen as an authoritative source of information and raises their levels of repeat interactions. Perhaps something Bolton at Home could be looking at for their contact centre?

Not having had access to people anywhere near this high up in strategic development at home I guess I don't have a lot to compare the conversation to but it seemed that in this agency, as with others here in Manila, common sense ideas were implemented to provide cost effective solutions to the problems they face.

Their coding system for traffic is a great example. Faced with massively over populated and congested roads a solution is to ban 20% of the cars on each working day. So on Monday licence plates numbered 1 and 2 are not allowed to travel, on Tuesday 3 and 4 and so on. On Thursday the roads are particularly light as the Chinese population favour the plates with 7 and 8 on as lucky. This leads to increased demand for these and less traffic. (They estimate this is a 4% increase over the normal 20%)

I do have to say that almost every household I've stayed in has had a number of cars with different coding to avoid the ban. And many people I spoke to had ignored the ban and driven anyway. A great example of their Twitter skills though was given to me by my current host's daughter Reggie. Her friend had driven to work on a banned day and tweeted how happy she was to have made it through. MMDA replied saying they were glad she'd got to work on time but warning her she could be caught if she did it again.

Among other fascinating work one idea really stood out; the training of normal people in disaster response. We've already seen in communities children being taught to be first aid responders but this training extends further to cover how to deal with flooding, fire and earthquakes among other things. In a perfect example of the joined up thinking displayed here people who violate minor rules such as jay walking and cannot pay the fine are sent on this training instead.

As has been pointed out to me so many times we are lucky in the UK. We know we can call 999 and help will come. We know someone will be there to help if there is an emergency. But as we face further cuts to services maybe we should be looking further afield for how we can respond to this. Great initiatives such as this allow people to help themselves and their community and would work just as well in heavy snow or a power cut as they would in an earthquake.