Asia Society names two Filipinas among 30 Asia Young Leaders

NEW YORK — A social entrepreneur working to end poverty for farming and fishing families and the founder of a nonprofit school that provides high-quality education to low-income communities are among the 30 remarkable professionals recently named “Asia 21 Young Leaders” by Asia Society.

AGREA CEO Cherrie Atilano and Mano Amiga Academy founder Eleanor Rosa Pinugu were selected for the 2017 class of Asia 21, Asia-Pacific’s foremost network of young leaders.

They will travel to Melbourne, Australia in December for the Asia 21’s annual summit, where they will meet members of the 2017 class from 20 other countries as well as Asia 21 alumni. The goal of the summit is to explore opportunities for collaboration to create positive impact and change across the Asia-Pacific region.

AGREA CEO Cherrie Atilano. CONTRIBUTED

Atilano is the founder and CEO of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc., an agro-social enterprise that aims to help eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families in order to alleviate the effects of climate change and establish food security in the Philippines.

AGREA has been mobilizing communities, businesses, academia, local and national governments and international partners to bring “Ecology of Dignity” to farming and fishing communities on the island of Marinduque.

Previously, Atilano worked as a consultant with the Department of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines and helped to form a cooperative of 241 smallholder farmers in the country.

Mano Amiga Academy founder Eleanor Rosa Pinugu. CONTRIBUTED

Pinugu founded Mano Amiga Academy, a sustainable nonprofit school designed to provide high-quality education and development services to low-income communities. She is also the co-founder of Bistro 3846, a social enterprise that provides healthy meals to schoolchildren, employs the parents of the Mano Amiga students, and donates its profits to the Mano Amiga scholarship fund.

Pinugu’s vision is to make quality education accessible to all children. She was named a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and was chosen to speak at the IdeasLab session at the 2012 WEF annual meeting in Davos, where she received a grant of $10,000 from the Good Planet Foundation.