PRO FILES: EVELIN WEBER
Modern-day Renaissance woman
“People who get inspired inspire me. People who are taking action really inspire me.” — Evelin Weber
Evelin Weber — an entrepreneurial businessperson and international philanthropist born in the Philippines — has continued to become increasingly difficult to typecast. Already a former Wall Street investment banker, fashion model, certified sommelier, certified aviation pilot and published author, Weber has turned her remarkable mind, passion and talents toward widescale community service.
Weber has since established The Philippines Foundation, an organization focused on community-rebuilding programs designed to empower and educate disadvantaged women and children in the Philippines. Through the Foundation, Weber created the Portraits of Love and Art Boats programs — both intended to thread ailing communities together with love — as well as supporting the Olongapo-based Pag Asa Orphanage in Zambales, Philippines and championed the #AkoSiDaniel social media movement.
Between preparing for her September 28th recognition at the United Nations for her work in global education and finalizing her next two novels, Weber took the time to speak about the fundamental importance of education, love, the art within wine and Siddhartha.
EVELIN WEBER
- Born in Philippines
ACCOLADES
- Academic — Syracuse University
- Academic — INSEAD
- Written / Published — The Black & The White (January 2013)
- Patron — A World At School
- Founder — The Philippines Foundation
ON THE PHILIPPINES FOUNDATION
#AkoSiDaniel was inspired by — I’ve been doing something called #UpForSchool. And I’m a patron or an ambassador to a global education platform called #UpForSchool that’s run by Sarah Brown and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is now the United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education. They asked me to spearhead this campaign and I did.
There’s a picture where there’s a kid studying on a makeshift desk of a cardboard box from the light of the McDonald’s while his mother is working at McDonald’s and he’s being homeless. That’s why it went viral. I was like: this represents every kid in the Philippines. So me and along with my youth ambassadors — there’s about fifteen of them — collaborated with all these youth organizations. ‘Ako Si Daniel’ means ‘I Am Daniel’ in the Philippines.
And it was sort of an off-set of #JeSuisCharlie — remember Charlie Hedbo that got shot in a newspaper in France by radical Islamists. So everyone started saying, “Je Suis Charlie: I Am Charlie” all over and just willing to support that. And I’m like, “Well, this kid Ako Si Daniel: I Am Daniel”. I represent Daniel and all these other nine-year old kids represent Daniel in the Philippines that can’t go to school.
In fact, 1.2 million of them can’t go to school. But it’s a typical story. It’s a typical story of a kid who’s poor, mother’s working, not enough money for a house, they’re uneducated. But the kid still fights to go to school, and he fights by studying. And his mother supports that.
There’s millions of them out there and I thought, “Look, let’s do this campaign. Let’s switch it up from #UpForSchool — because it doesn’t reach out there — to say #AkoSiDaniel.” And then all these youth organizations started getting behind the program; celebrities in the Philippines, newspapers in the Philippines, a lot of youth organizations.
Now the U.N. has picked up on it and is sort of honoring me at the end of September for my work in education. It’s just a way of bringing attention to kids in the Philippines. And you know, I can’t focus on the world — of course not. But what I can focus on really kind of true to myself is doing something for a country that’s given a lot back to me, and that’s the Philippines.
I maybe have horse blinders on just to the Philippines with a global issue, but at least that’s something that I can tackle. And that’s what I am doing.
ON INSPIRATION
People who get inspired inspire me. Like my father inspires me, and he’s died but what I started to realize is: my youth leaders who are really collaborating — they inspire me. People who are taking action really inspire me. This may be a new thing that I’ve realized about myself: when people are stepping outside of themselves doing things — and to watch it — that’s inspiring to me.
When I go to the hospital and watch these kids smile; when you see these kids that just fight every day and they’re smiling. They know they’re dying but they don’t care, they’re just happy living in the moment — that’s kind of cool, right? So people who just really push themselves a little bit — that’s just really cool to me.
I really love that, and it just gives me goosebumps when I see people taking actions either within themselves or helping others; it’s just really nice. And I think we can’t get enough of those people.
So if I inspire them — if I give to them one unit — they give back to me like three units. I definitely get more from seeing people inspired than I feel like I’m giving, actually.
ON AVIATION
My dad was a proverbial rocket scientist. Physics, German — you know. He worked for NASA. I don’t know why, but I just liked space — maybe was his influence. I decided one day to fly and loved it and just kind of pursued it.
And I’m kind of the one, like I put my mind to it and just did it. It was an exhilarating, invigorating experience. And I do that now, but as I’ve gotten older I try to have other pilots with me. Because as safe as it is flying, you can never be too safe. I always say: “Taking off is an option. Landing — not an option.”
So it’s always to be safe before you take off. I like to fly with other pilots now — and when it’s perfect and sunny out. When there’s a little bit of weather that’s happening, most accidents happen because of pilot error and over-judging the weather.
And you know what? Between you and the weather, weather always wins.
ON THE BLACK & THE WHITE
I’m in the process of getting a lit agent for the other two books I’ve written. That’s sort of where I’m at with the book. There was one point I remember clearly, I was just really frustrated at work. Just sort of harassed and just it became too much. I didn’t want to be the girl who ran to Human Resources and the stereotypical girl crying to HR because she can’t handle it kind of story.
So I didn’t want to do anything, but my creative outlet to vent frustration productively. It was more like just journaling things down. I just started writing and it was a good form of therapy for me; a release.
Just because I tend to not vocalize emotions that much, so this was a very good outlet.
ON EDUCATION
Look, you want to prevent global climate change? Educate people. You want to decrease maternal mortality rate? Educate somebody. You want to get out of poverty? Well, educate somebody. You want to increase the lifespan of a child with cancer? Well, get yourself educated so you can help the kid.
To me, education is so fundamental in really, really making a difference.
ON PORTRAITS OF LOVE
Education is sort of my platform, but when I found out ninety-percent of the kids in the Philippines in this one hospital die? And a lot of it is because one: the mothers are not educated, and two: the doctors aren’t that qualified. So what does that mean? Well, the kids now suffer because of education, be it the doctors and their caretakers.
So I’m like, “Well, look — I can’t educate all the mothers, but I am trying to.” So what we do is we teach the mothers how to teach the kids to brush their teeth, eat nutritiously and that kind of thing. So we create a day of fun, and it’s just my way of creating a day of fun so I can single out the mothers and teach them, “Look, you can’t have your kids stop taking cancer meds. You can’t. Because the moment you do, the cancer’ll come back that much stronger than it did the first time.”
We try to help educate mothers on doing that, and we’ve partnered up with various organizations that help take care of their transportation to off-set the cost of their kid going to the hospital.
When we alleviate all of the barriers for them to come in, the kid has a greater chance to survive. Because the kid suffers; the kid just has cancer, he doesn’t know.
But the kid suffers because the mothers aren’t educated and doctors don’t have the resources and get better training to diagnose the child. So to me, you know what? What am I gonna do? I can make a really great day of fun: of clowns, of art, make that kid happy. Paint their ward — it’s right now dim and grizzly — make it look happy so while they’re there, they think that it’s like a little bit of a hotel room with other kids.
And that’s what I want to do — just create this idea that their life doesn’t have to be miserable despite their own handicap.
A day of happiness goes a long way.
ON FEAR
Maybe I’m just naive when it comes to doing something. You just do it, and then worry about it later. Or I don’t even know if I’ll worry about it. When I first do something, I don’t worry about it because I don’t know what to worry about, right? Like how am I supposed to know what to worry about before I even do it? So I just get on with it. And then when things happen, I get scared.
When I was getting my pilot’s license, I’ll give you an example of fear. When I was getting tested for my pilot’s license, when they actually check you off — no doubt I was scared. No matter how prepared I was, to the point where I actually failed the first time I took it. Because as I was taxiing off, something popped in the airplane; I heard a loud noise.
And I looked at my instructor and I go, “No fly. I refuse to fly if I have a noise I’m not familiar with.” Taking off is always an option. So I stopped the plane and he goes, “Well, you know we gotta fail you because you stopped the plane.” I’m like, “Fail me? I’d rather fail and survive than pass and die. Whatever.” When we stopped and finally taxied he goes, “That was the best pilot decision you’ve made, but I still have to fail you.” I was like, “That’s fine!”
The next day I flew and I passed; I looked at the pilot like, so excited. Because he said to me, “Make sure you land as if I didn’t even know.” I landed and looked at him like, “I just landed on a carton runway.” And he’s like, “Yup” meaning he didn’t even know. He was like, “Did we just land?” and I was like, “Yup — we landed.” And I was so excited because they’re not supposed to tell you if you’ve passed or failed until you get off, because they’re supposed to make you really nervous.
And finally I was like, “You don’t even have to tell me — I freaking know I passed!” I was excited and he was like, “Well OK, alright. You did.”
I think fear stops a lot of people from doing things because the anticipation of it is usually worse than the reality. I think most people hold themselves back because they’re scared to go on.
And look, there are many times — when I’m launching my Foundation, I was scared. I was scared. I was like: no one’s going to believe in my causes. I should just do it on my own. I don’t ever want to ask people for money, why would I do that? It’s ridiculous, it’s just not me. No one’s going to support me. Just riddled with self-doubt, right?
But you just get on with it. Just do it. And I still think every campaign I do like, I’m gonna fail, no one’s gonna support me. Why am I so different than others?
It’s just how it is, right? But you kind of just do it.
ON SIDDHARTHA
I love Siddhartha. I love Siddhartha; it’s one of my favorite books. And a lot of the history — one: because he’s German, and two: in the time that he was writing it. I love a lot of the Hermann Hesse books, but Siddhartha specifically speaks to me. Because this man wrote it in two sections: one of which was before he was sent to a mental institution and then the second when he got out.
And it really just really captures a man who’s a visionary — someone who’s exploring himself. Just love that book. I mean, I love all of his other books: The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf, that kind of stuff.
But he wrote it very authentically in a time when he was searching for his inner knowledge and spirituality in a time when that wasn’t really advocated.
Sort of, “Follow the German rule!” and he sort of broke out of that, so that was kind of cool. And that’s why people thought he was crazy — because he was like a renegade. I just love that book.
ON WINE
I’ll tell you: I don’t discriminate. I mean, I’m an equal-opportunity wine drinker. But one of the most exquisite experiences — I mean, I’ve traveled many places and end up drinking wine. A lot of stories are told over bottles of wine, and a lot of missed stories happened in the bottles of wine.
The most recent exquisite experience I had was in Napa Valley during Festival del Sole. Essentially you’re outside of a vineyard overlooking Napa Valley: the sun’s going down, you’re listening to classical music, having best wines from famous chefs.
Drinking exquisite house bottles from Far Niente, from Opus One Vineyard. It was complete sensory overload, you know? You have opera just singing through the vineyard and just resonating with great friends. You have sunsets.
It was just, I don’t know — just really completely overwhelming. Normally, you’ll listen to Beethoven’s Ninth in a symphony or you listen to Carmen in an opera house. But when you listen to it outside, when you have fresh breeze hitting you with a really good glass or bottle of wine in your hand, with friends and a great view? Incomparable. Absolutely incomparable.
ON ART BOATS
Essentially a bunch of people in the Philippines lose their lives — I think five hundred eighty homes get completely demolished, six thousand people died. The winds are like 2.9 times stronger than Sandy and 1.9 times stronger than Katrina, and the Philippines hasn’t really gotten much attention in that regard.
So what I’m doing is I’m taking the art that the kids are doing at Portraits of Love and I’m decaling them on the sides of these fishing boats. I’m raising money to support one thousand boats so each of these people can get their livelihoods back. So one thousand boats, five thousand lives, three thousand eight hundred kids I’m supporting.
My thing is I’d like for #GivingTuesday to be like one community: the kids with cancer helping another community out, which is people who’ve lost their livelihoods by no choice of their own during the Typhoon. Just giving them sort of a leg up, per se — the whole ‘teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime’ kind of mentality.
It’s obvious: over eleven million people affected, four million people displaced, six thousand people died, nearly six hundred thousand homes totally destroyed. The people that are most-affected are fishermen and farmers, because the winds at two hundred thirty miles per hour come blowing.
First thing it takes is all the crops, all the trees. All the crops are washed away with the ocean, all the boats are washed away with the ocean.
You have six thousand people dead, everything is in the ocean — just like nature always wins. I always say, “Nature always wins.”
So it was obvious it was something I could help, and what happens is like in an area, a friend of mine is a Congresswoman. She tallied up all the rosters of fishermen, and she realized six thousand two hundred fishermen were without boats. The government only gave them eighty. So she’s like, “Well, eighty’s not enough.” So she went out and I was like, “Look, I’ll help. I’ll help, but I’m going to help with pre-conditions.”
And these pre-conditions are: they can’t sell the boat, they can’t rent the boat, they can’t lease the boat. No part shall be sold or anything. It’s always going to be intact. But the precondition is — because I’m helping education — so I’m giving each fisherman accountability. Accountability being the moment you give your boat away, or you break my covenant law — which I’m making them sign a memo of understanding — the moment you break that, I take your boat and give it to your neighbors.
So as long as your child stays in school and then graduates school — you get to keep your boat. The moment that kid drops out — I take your boat.
I’m not giving away hand-outs, you know? I’m helping them up; I’m not giving out. And there’s much science about it: the moment you give accountability to someone, they have a little bit of an emotional ownership to it. And once you have ownership to it, you have a vested interest in making things happen. And that’s great.
All of it is education. The reason why kids aren’t going to school is because the fathers are like, “Dude, you got to help me out on the farm and the field so we can feed the family.” The farmers don’t understand the benefits of school right now because they need to eat.
So I was like: if I give you food and you go and you work, then that alleviates the reason why they’ve taken the kid out of school. The kid does not need to go out of school.
So the father works, the kid stays in school, the mother — what does she do? She stays at home, so what am I doing with her? I’m teaching her how to farm. So the moment the father doesn’t come home with the fish, at least the mother has vegetables from the farm and the kid always has meals; always has food at the table. So I’m educating the mother, educating the father and educating the kids.
And the reason I’ve added Portraits of Love there onto the Art Boats is because dude, come on. Unless you’re a complete sociopath, if you see a kids art it puts a smile on your face, right? Like no one looks at kids art and doesn’t smile.
So what I’m saying is: if I adorn the boats with kids art that are made from these kids with cancer, not only do I memorialize the kid but I’m making you realize that these kids helped you out.
So you just know that when you go every morning, when you pick up your boat and there’s a kid’s name on your boat — because every boat has to be named — you know that ninety percent of them may or may not have died. But you fish your butt off and make sure that these kids are honored by your hard work and you taking care of your family.
Imagine a whole sea of kids art in the ocean. Like how great is that?
You’re fishing and you see like starfish and whales and kids art. It’s art on the ocean. It gives back to the people that are looking at the fishing boats and it honors the kid who drew it, it gives back a sense of pride to the person who’s fishing. So it’s just overall very nice, you know? Why not.
I don’t want to just put some corporate name on it. No way. I’m not taking any corporate money because I don’t want any corporate name on there, because it takes away the true essence and authenticity of me giving. It’s a fisherman’s boat — it’s their livelihood, right? It’s their livelihood. I want them to take ownership of it, but I also want them to remember who gave them the boat and who they’re honoring. And it’s the child and the hospital.
And nothing better than kids art, man. Out on the ocean? Perfect, right? Like kids art on the ocean, a bunch of them and then when they dock and they put it upside down and let their boats dry? You walk around as a passerby and see art on these boats, it’s fantastic. It’s just pretty, I think.
ON PASSION
If I’m not going to be passionate about it, I shouldn’t be doing it; I should concentrate on the things that give me passion, right? We all may not find it so easily as I have. I found working in the Philippines gives me passion. I find that when I give back to the world gives me passion.
If you’re not doing something with passion — and there’s so much research that goes to showcase it — then really you’re doing yourself a disservice and the people you’re helping a disservice. If you work at a corporate office and all you’ve always wanted to do is write books, and then every day you slice a little bit of your personality and live unhappy because you are not being real to yourself.
Meaning: you are not being authentic to your true self of who you are by continually being unhappy every day. Or even just a little bit of being unhappy — it’s not worth it, you know?
You’ve got one life. Freaking live it.
ON STAYING AUTHENTIC
We’re in an age of self-discovery now in the 2000’s and 2015 and in this new decade. People are really, really trying to find who they are. And it’s like the Dawn of Aquarius per se, right? And everyone is in pursuit of something called happiness — and it’s become really coined, you know? What this means: the Dalai Lama preaches it all the time — just finding true happiness. In Asia it’s always been that way, right?
At the end of your life span when you’re sitting in your deathbed, you look back — your memorial rewind, per se. And you look back at yourself, and you’re a corporate executive. And you looked back and you knew you always wanted to be a writer, and you didn’t even write one word because you were scared or whatever. You would feel bad about what you’ve done.
You could’ve written the next best great American story — but you didn’t do it.
So I think being true to yourself — even if you know, “Look, I’m in this corporate job, but I’m being true to myself knowing that I’m not pursuing my dream” — that’s still being true to yourself. You’re still thinking, “I am being conscience about this decision.” And the cost-benefit is that I may not be happy doing what I do, but I must do it. But at least you know that that’s what you’re doing.
But to walk around like zombies … it doesn’t do anyone any good because you’ll pick away a little bit of yourself each day that you don’t do that.
ON LOVE
I know this is super-cliché and I hate to be cliché about it, but I just do know that Love is the answer. But then, what’s the question? It’s whatever it is to that person. When people show love — love of country, love of Self, love of job, love of whatever — there’s a lot that gets answered for you.
If you take care of yourself, love yourself, think positively, you can reverse so many signs or symptoms of health. Change your brain, change your health. A lot of it is if you realize that if you love yourself, if you love your family — a lot of ailments just go away. Headaches and diseases. There’s so much science behind the way you think about things, the way your body responds.
Love to me is the answer. And the question is specific to the individual. I think it’s really important to act on kindness, love, compassion — that kind of stuff. And it really starts with the Self.
