#IbaYanEcoUling: Inspiring stories of PWDs who make echo uling for a living!

This week's episode of Iba Yan told the stories of inspiring individual who, despite their circumstances found a way to make a living whilst helping the environment.

Last Sunday, we learned the story of Kuya Ofemio Rangel, one of the co-founders of Tree's A life, a group of PWDs who are making Eco charcoal out of dried water lilies. According to Relyn Nieva, they chose to give chance to PWDs and hire them to break the stigma and the mindset that persons with disabilities can't do anything, that they are useless and can't do anything productive.

Kuya Ofemio, 49, had one leg amputated since he was 22 years old and one of the echo uling makers of Tree's A Life. When asked what happened to his leg, he shared how he got into an accident while driving a tricycle. He got hit by a truck and the damage to his leg was bad that the doctor had no choice but to amputate.

Despite his disability, he still thrives through Tree's A Life and very hands-on in making echo uling, he even showed Kitkat and team Iba Yan how they process the charcoals from crushing to packing.

Tree's A Life is doing an amazing service to the environment and to people. They give chance to PWDs who, even in this day and age, still receive discrimination especially at the workplace. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, they have to stop production and from 14 employees, they have to downsize their manpower to 3.

They need all the customers that they can get especially in this time of pandemic and Kuya Ofemio encouraged everyone to support their product

"Sa pagtangkilik nyo po ng aming produkto, hindi lang po kayo nakatulong sa amin, nakatulong na rin po kayo sa ating inang kalikasan."

To learn more about echo uling and to buy their product, you can visit their Facebook page Trees A Life.



Watch the full episode here: