New York Community Takes Part in Liter of Light’s Marawi Project

Team Leader of Liter of Light Illac Diaz with Philippine Consul General Theresa Dizon-de Vega, Vice Consul Khrystina Corpuz with community volunteers showing off some of the finished lamps for Marawi (photos by NYPCG).

13 December 2017 NEW YORK – Filipino Community members joined the Liter of Light Team in making sustainable lanterns for the use of displaced Marawi residents on December 09 at the Philippine Center in New York.

Dubbed “Lights for Marawi”, the project has taken the Liter of Light Team, a foundation which promotes sustainable and easy to assemble lighting implements, to different parts of the globe to raise awareness for light sustainability and needs of different communities. The Lights for Marawi Project has been undertaken in both the US and East and West Coasts.

According to Team Leader Illac Diaz, a TOYM awardee, social entrepreneur, and sustainable development advocate, The Lights for Marawi project aims to provide sustainable lighting in the form of re-purposed kerosene lamps now battery-sustained for the use of displaced residents of Marawi City. The lamps are especially suited for use in relocation camps and other temporary lodgings as they are safe, inexpensive and easy to assemble. Mr. Diaz spoke about the project at the Simbang Gabi sa Konsulado on December 09.

Consul General Theresa Dizon-De Vega encouraged Filipinos overseas, particularly in the US Northeast to take part in the project.

Filipino Community member Potri Ranka Manis, whose organization Kinding Sindaw promotes the arts and traditions of Mindanao, welcomed the initiative and expressed full support for the advocacy of Liter of Light.  Other community members from the Mindanao State University (MSU) Alumni Association, the Association of Filipino Teachers in America (AFTA), and San Beda Alumni Association, among others took part in the workshop.

Liter of Light is likewise slated to take part in a major light installation in New York’s Central Park for the International Day of Light in 2018. END

Illac Diaz and his team conduct the light-making workshop.

Some of the lights made during the workshop are displayed at the lobby of the Philippine Center.

Illac Diaz talks about the Liter of Lights – Lights for Marawi Project.

For more information, visit www.newyorkpcg.dfa.gov.ph / www.newyorkpcg.org or https://www.facebook.com/PHLinNY/.