We have been featured in the August edition of Smile Magazine, the in-flight magazine of Cebu Pacific Air. The article, by Katherine Jack, is about the “Brain Gain”, Filipinos who are returning to their homeland to make a difference.

Ami Evangelista Swanepoel grew up in Manila, and moved to the US when she was 19 to study at Wellesley College. After graduating, she spent two years with Human Rights Watch doing challenging work that further inspired her to pursue her Masters in health and human rights.

Ami was working as a consultant in strategic planning for nonprofi ts, when one morning she received an unexpected email from her mother, Susan. The message tentatively suggested that they found an organization for women and children in Palawan. Ami was excited at the prospect of moving back to the Philippines. “I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in New York and wanted a job that matched my work experience and training,” she says.

Her husband, Marcus, a schoolteacher from South Africa, was also keen to move. “I had been to Palawan before and could imagine us living there,” he recalls. In 2009, they founded Roots of Health (Ugat ng Kalusugan) a non-profit organization focused on improving the health of women and children, and their communities in the city of Puerto Princesa.

Roots of Health aims to give people the information they need to make decisions about family planning, health and improved nutrition. “There is a need for organizations like ours as information about women’s health and pregnancy is lacking in the Philippines,” explains Ami. “It is amazing to see the difference that a small program like ours can make,” she says.

“As a Filipino myself, I find it fulfilling to do this kind of work for other Filipinos.”