We go to the Philippines and meet 15-year-old May Sanchez, who is expecting her second child. Despite laws aimed at increasing access to birth control, girls like Sanchez often learn about contraception […]
The Philippines has 1.8 million abandoned children. Here’s what keeps many from adoption
The Manila North Cemetery, where Michelle Sambalilo was abandoned as a young child, is a sprawling, trash-strewn squatter camp where thousands of people eat, sleep and play among acres of colorful crypts. Rescued […]
In the Philippines, ‘a government with heart’ versus the rule of the fist
The Philippines’ presidential elections are on Monday, and the country is in the grip of election fever. In Manila, campaign posters flutter from overpasses, newspapers carry breathless headlines about polls, and coffee […]
The Green Heart of Italy
Swinging in a hammock under a giant tree surrounded by green vineyards, rolling hills and olive groves of the Umbrian countryside, I had one thought flowing through my mind: the secret to […]
Ponchos at the ready for Pope’s tour in Manila
An estimated of six million people flocked to Manila Rizal park yesterday to attend the final mass of Pope Francis’ five-day to the Philippines. The turn out breaks the record set by […]
Typhoon Haiyan: The man and the boy who saved each other
When typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines a year ago and sea waters submerged parts of the city of Tacloban, one man grabbed a piece of wood – and floated into a tree […]
Asia’s Decade of Disaster has spurred as sharper focus on how aid is used
When aid started arriving after Typhoon Haiyan, there was gratitude but also frustration among harried bureaucrats in Manila. An outpouring global goodwill deluged the Philippines with every form of aid, from cash to […]
Workers across Asia mark May Day with street protests (story contribution)
PHNOM PENH (AA) – Workers across Asia turned out en masse Thursday to mark International Labor Day, with just one rally in the Cambodian capital briefly turning violent. At least […]
Live and Learn
Teach for the Philippines’ Clarissa Delgado offers her thoughts about addressing the education system’s woes. When Clarissa Delgado was six years old, her parents caught her with bags packed, heading to the […]
Flags of Our Fathers
Tens and thousands of abandoned Filipino Amerasians have grown up in poverty and under a cloud of shame. Now that the United States is pivoting towards Asia once again, the fear is […]