Our Story

The Indigenous Peoples (IPs) of the Philippines are facing many social injustices with some of the most prevalent issues being the corruption of their rights, their diminishing culture, and the lack of means to sustain livelihood. IPs in the Philippines today are gravely threatened by the current political landscape with a prominent issue being the exploitation of their ancestral domain and basic human rights.

An important question we need to ask: How can we uphold, prioritize, and develop the Indigenous Peoples’ rights when inequality and exploitation leave them minimal room to thrive?

We see the challenge; but we are here to change that.

 

In our mission to address the issues faced by IPs further, we met the Santos family- a sweet family that are currently caretakers of the San Agustin Elementary School in Pampanga.

Through extensive research, we found that the most common form of livelihood or skills are based on agriculture and timber products, but we uncovered that this is now an unstable source of livelihood, leaving many IPs struggling especially in the midst of this pandemic.

With that, we wanted to create a sustainable and impactful social enterprise by introducing new skills from of our business concept products, involving the IP in the process of creating unique products that showcase their talents and advocate for their cause.

Our Goal? Empower.

 

At Quatro, we aim to provide employment and livelihood opportunities while building an avenue for self-growth. We want to champion the skills and culture of the Philippine Indigenous People as a means to implement sustainable and contextualized solutions for the sector.

In deepening the connection of our product offerings to our advocacy, each candle represents a destination around the Philippines that will take you on a nostalgic trip. Our soy-blend candles are hand-poured by the Aetas of Arayat, Pampanga.