SHAWNTEL NIETO

Shawntel first engaged in development in 2015 after co-founding BMB Solutions, a social enterprise that provided marginalized communities with electricity and water. Since then, she has been determined to increase the ways by which she impacts people and co-create a better world for all. She completed a Master’s degree in Sustainability Management and has started several organisations including Sustainarumble, One Cainta and the Society of Sustainable Practitioners.

“Exist in the present but also focus on and enjoy the process.”

Q: Tell us a few things about your country, and also your life's story!

I live in the Philippines - a beautiful country of 7,640 islands and 110 million people. It is a country rich in culture, biodiversity, and "bayanihan" (heroic) spirit. However, it is also a country stricken by poverty where, even today, up to 16 million Filipinos still live below the poverty line.

I was born and raised in the Philippines. Growing up, I saw how debilitating poverty can be to everyone within its grasp yet, I also saw how, in our own ways, we could make a difference - we could do something. I have seen this in the way my parents, Dr. Jet Nieto and Dra. Girlie Nieto, both utilize their professions as doctors to serve the underserved.

After being with marginalized communities in 2015, I started to work to try to alleviate poverty and reduce marginalization. I founded BMB Solutions to provide marginalized communities with electricity and water, the One Cainta Relief program to provide communities in need of support with food and relief, as well as Modular Education X to provide students with free digital elective classes. I have also founded the Society of Sustainability Practitioners, as well as SustainaRumble, in order to further sustainability and sustainable development on a systemic level. The Society of Sustainability Practitioners is the country's first association for sustainability professionals nationwide, while SustainaRumble is an organization that increases public awareness on sustainable development as it relates to the Philippines.

Beyond being part of a family that strives to support the communities around us, our family is also immensely athletic. I was a badminton athlete, champion and captain for 10 years; my dad was a university basketball champion and my brothers are all national and/or varsity basketball players.

Q: What was your experience of the global pandemic crisis? Did it change your life and/or your views about the world? If so, how?

I believe no one came out of this global pandemic crisis unscathed and unaffected. From cancelled plans and disrupted school or work places, to increased anxiety levels and grief, everyone - albeit in varying degrees - has been impacted by the pandemic.

Coming from the Philippines, we felt just how terrifying the pandemic was both to one's health and economic stability. I believe our country has set the record for having the longest lockdown in the world, and doing so has truly tested millions of filipinos' abilities to make ends meet. It has caused the loss of livelihood and employment in rates unseen in a very long time. As a response, my family and I started the One Cainta Food and Relief program in order to support, to the best of our ability, the communities in our town of Cainta. We started by coordinating with various organizations - private and civic - to acquire various goods to be distributed to households and in our community, door-to-door. At the height of the lockdown, we were distributing food and packed meals to up to 1000 people a day, whilst also distributing relief and grocery kits to different households on a weekly basis. Since March of last year, this initiative has grown, obtained structure, and has allowed us to distribute up to 1 million relief goods to over 250,000 unique individuals in our town as well as in the cities of Caloocan, Bulacan, Pasig, and Antipolo.

The difficulty faced by students due to the pandemic as well as the decrease in the quality of education nationwide moved us to start Modular Education X, an education program that convenes a pool of young, awarded leaders and experts from all around the world to teach elective classes to Filipino students every weekend. Classes include project management, sustainable fashion, poetry, theatre and public speaking. We made sure these classes supplemented the students' learning in the classroom, whilst also showing them what else there is to see and accomplish outside.

There truly is so much work that needs to be done in this world, and so much that needs to be changed. I believe we've all seen this over the past year, particularly because of how these issues - social, economic, and environmental - have grown in magnitude and impact due to the pandemic. Seeing these issues grow alongside my work trying to resolve them has made me all the more determined to try and do what I can to change things. It has made me hungrier and firmer in my conviction to help make people's lives better.

Beyond serving as a push to grow initiatives that supported the marginalized and underserved in my country, the pandemic has also moved me to pause and re-assess all that I deemed important. It's made me remember that, at the end of the day, my family and my loved ones are my core. My personal life is my core, my faith is my strength, and my vision is my spirit; everything else is just a bonus. The accolades, the material collections, and even the trips are bonuses. They are nice to have but they are not what's most important and they are not what truly brings me the most joy. This reminder helped me be more mindful of the extent to which I intentionally live in the present, express myself, and find things to be grateful for in everything - especially the "mundane." Real joy, to me, is in the seemingly mundane because that's where our appreciation for and alignment with our core, faith, and vision is almost always at.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently?

Corruption and the prevalence of exploitative capitalist systems hinder true inclusive development in the Philippines. The gap between the rich and the poor in the country has been increasing - as it has globally. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Beyond these systems, because of our geographical location, the Philippines is also at the mercy of climate change. Being one of the top five countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, we have already started experiencing the effects of increased rainfall, typhoon strengths and average temperatures nationwide. These indubitably pose both security and health risks to the people of my country.

Q: Can you share with us some of the hurdles that you have had to overcome in your life so far? How did you handle them? 

As an athlete, I started training for badminton relatively late. All my counterparts were winning national tournaments and training abroad while I was still learning how to hold a racket properly. I thus had to work thrice as hard in order to catch-up. Thankfully, with the support of my parents who would be at every training session, even during summers when I would train two to three times a day, I was able to become the badminton athlete I was. I likewise have my coaches to thank for my development. They gave me their time, their knowledge and, most importantly, their trust. Whenever I came into a new team, I would be coming in as someone with heart and potential, but still rough around the edges for the new level of competition I was entering. If my coaches had not believed in my ability to grow, compete, and win, I never would have been given the chance to do so. I owe a huge part of my journey to the trust they gave me from the start, and this is something I would never forget and would always strive to emulate.

My journey, although still on-going, in the field of impact and sustainability is not that different from my athletic journey. I came into the space with little technical knowledge and experience but with lots of heart. I had to go beyond my comfort zone, actively seek out new perspectives and knowledge, and just try to bring the vision I had to life. I faced many failures as a result. I lost pitches, got rejected, worried about ineffective or broken prototypes, and sulked about projects that never took off despite planning and goal-setting with my teams. Yet, all these contributed to my growth and to my current ability to lead and affect change. I know the journey is not yet over and neither is my growth, but I do know that, to the best of my ability, I will continue trying, learning, and iterating. I will continue striving to further my vision, support the marginalized, and as cliché as it may sound: "be the change I want to see in the world."

Q: If you were to ask one thing from our current leaders, what would it be?

I would ask for empathy and firmer intent to actively listen to constituents - all of their constituents. It's so easy to forget everyone else once you are "on top." It's easy to subscribe to ideologies that merit "some" to be superior over others once people start calling you "superior" too. Yet it’s through these acts of dismissing and "othering" that the majority of our systemic issues find space to grow. It’s through these that racism, discrimination, human exploitation and the creation or maintenance of systems that favour the elite still exist. It’s through these that greed finds its way through different leaders' rooms.

I believe that if leaders remain intentional and consistent in the way they go down their ivory towers, talk to the people and really strive to see others as human beings and empathize with them, then the decisions they make, the programs or solutions they start, and the systems they enable, would become much more just, inclusive, and empowering for all.

We need competent leaders but we need competence that is fuelled by a heart and a soul that cares for, includes, and listens to every stakeholder involved.

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you?

To me, a mentor is important for three reasons. Firstly, no one holds a monopoly on the truth. We all see from our own vantage points and will forever be limited by extent to which we see, understand, and process facts, truths, perspectives and all the other intricate complexities of life. Having a mentor is important because mentors help us see from a different vantage point. They help us identify our blind spots, see ideas or projects from a fresh perspective, and improve what we currently have as a result. They also help us understand possibilities and concepts that we may not see now but will in the future. This rings true especially with mentors in the same fields and sectors as us, but who may be further up the ladder. As someone once jokingly told me, "experience is the best teacher but it is no good for you to have the "experience," go learn from someone who did so you would not have to."

Secondly, thoughts and ideas, especially in my head, tend to bundle up more than wire-earphones do overnight. Having a mentor and being able to speak these thoughts and ideas out loud help to straighten what was already starting to get tangled in my head.

Lastly, having a mentor is important to me because just as my coaches did as I was growing up, mentors challenge me and push me to believe in myself and my work. They remind me of what I can do, support me when I feel lost or down, and essentially help become the person I strive to be.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share? 

To exist in the present but also focus on and enjoy the process. Joy is in the present but the "magic" in winning championships, bringing visions to life, and overall just achieving whatever it is we want comes from enjoying and loving the process.

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives!

My family and I are currently running a food and relief program in our town. Our work may be found in this link: weareonewalangiwanan.wordpress.com

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in your country face and what efforts are being made towards gender equality?

Although the glass ceiling is not as apparent in my country as it is globally, women still face a huge amount of discrimination, objectification and belittling. Currently, movements challenging the objectification of women and the focus people put on conventional standards of beauty have started and have been growing over the past few years.

Q: Share with us a phrase, a poem or a story that you love or you find interesting!

Tiwala lang - just trust. This has been my motto for years now.

Q: Can you share with us a project that you would like to make happen for your country or a cause that you are passionate about? 

I would like to re-imagine our current food supply chain in order to reduce packaging and waste, and make it so that produce or goods that are "ugly," or near expiration are immediately sent to redistribution channels that are easily accessible, especially to marginalized communities in need of food and support. I’d also like to invite people to support our food and relief program OneCainta and our podcast SustainaRumble (on Spotify & Apple podcasts).