The Board of Trustees
Emma A. Ravelo
Emma A. Ravelo is a Founder, President and Board of Trustee of Gawad Pag-asa International, Inc. (GPII). She specializes in research, project management, capacity building and coordination. She has at least 10 years of education and work experience in research in the areas of sustainability, climate change mitigation, payment or rewards for ecosystem services, and urban quality of life; and three and a half years in project management, capacity building and coordination.
Before becoming a founder, Emma worked at World Agroforestry Center as a Project Coordinator/Manager. In one of the events, where she served as a chair, it became her life-turning and -defining moment when she realized that she is passionate in helping less fortunate people find hope and encourage them to pursue who they want to be in life despite their limitations. Since then, she never looked back: she dedicated her life to make a significant and positive difference in people’s lives, especially the poor.
She founded GPII because she believes that it is possible to build a self-sustaining community where everything is provided for so the underprivileged have the means and access to achieve their full potential. Together with the team, Emma aims to give hope and transform lives of the underprivileged and sustain the community for long-term impact.
Emma has a PhD degree in Environmental Engineering, a MS degree in Environmental Science and a BS degree in Forest Products Engineering. She wants to design environment-friendly technologies or facilities for the self-sustaining community of GPII.
Currently Emma is based in Singapore with her loving husband Ronnie Joy and adorable little boy Jed. But once GPII has acquired its own land, Emma wants to go back and be the hands-on directress of GPII operations and programs.
Tristram C. Batoto
Tristram C. Batoto is one of the Founders of GPII and seats as one of the Board of Trustees and is functioning as the Vice-President of the organization.
Tristram is a pastor and a businessman. He is an Associate Pastor of Destiny Ministries International, Inc. As a pastor he leads a church in Malaysia and has outreach ministry to indigenous people. As a businessman he owns Radicle AgriTrading, a distribution company. He brings with him leadership and organizational skills, strategic networking, project coordination, counselling, coaching and supervisory skills. He has a degree in Agriculture majoring in Plant Pathology and has a graduate degree in Zoology majoring in Entomology with specialization in Insect Pathology. Before graduating in the Masters degree he worked under a NGO funded project in a tribal community as a Research Assistant and a Community Officer. He also used to work as an Assistant Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute. He is a licensed and practicing Real Estate Broker in the Philippines.
Why he founded or joined Gawad Pag-asa is because he want to serve humanity, he believes that God gave him a heart for the poor and underprivileged. He wants to empower them to achieve their potentials, he wants to be one of the instruments to usher them to envision that “hope” for themselves. He see himself and this organization not just an agent of change but agent of Transformation.
Personally, what he wants to achieve thru GPII is for him to contribute his skills, talents, experiences and whatever abilities God has given him, to release it through this organization. He want to also pass on the youth the heart to serve other people and for them to take the mantle of leadership of this organization. Then as an organization, together with the members, to see the realization of an established self-sustaining community is achievement enough for him, a legacy for the next generation.
Tram is based in Singapore, he lives with his lovely wife, Mian and son, Cyrus. He operates his businesses on line and frequently travels to Malaysia and Philippines, for business and ministry.
Theodore Albert G. Lim
Theodore Albert G. Lim, a.k.a Ted or Theo, is one of the Co-Founders of GPII. He is designated as the Auditor of the NGO.
Theo is a Freelance Bookkeeper, specializing in Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Internal Control. He brings expertise from work experience as an Staff Auditor and Financial Consultant in PwC Phiilppines; an IT Administrator and Project Manager in NEC Philippines; and as an Accounting Instructor in City College of Calamba and Colegio de San Juan de Letran (Calamba). He is also involved as an Auditor in another Filipino NGO, Permaculture Sustainability Development Organization, Inc. He has a degree in Finance majoring in Accounting and has earned a Certified Public Accountant certification. He has taken various relevant training, although he normally learns on-the-job.
Theo also works part-time as a Liebuster Pro. He is trained to set people free and help them clean up their lives bringing them greater freedom to fulfill their passion in life.
He joined with the founders to form GPII because he believes that it is part of his life purpose to help people, especially the poverty stricken and marginalized. He desires to bring them to the place where they can lift themselves up with the hope (pag-asa) that they were meant for greater things.
Drawing from life experience, Theo knows that Hope is a vital ingredient for people to begin to see the need for change among themselves. He wants to impart this Hope to those who desperately need it and teach others to do the same.
Theo lives in Calamba City where you will find him working from home on a US work-time schedule, learning some carpentry and helping his wife raise their 4 kids and mother-in-law.
Beverly A. Sandoval
Beverly A. Sandoval is one of the Co-Founders and one of the Board of Trustees of GPII. Beverly or Bev is a graduate of Business Administration major in Management with Entrepreneurship. She worked as an Admin/HR, Sales Coordinator in Philippines. She is currently working in Oil and Gas industry as a Proposal Engineer in Singapore. Since Bev moved to Singapore in 2007, she attended City Harvest Church and initially engaged in Usher Ministry but due to God’s impression upon her to Build Schools for Children, she decided to shift in Children’s church (aka Harvest Kidz). She commenced doing a regular kids visitation and was given a chance to lead more than 20 kids to minister to them on a weekly basis. With God’s orchestration, she was able to accomplished Advanced Certificate in Theology in City Harvest School of Theology, Singapore. She joined GPII because she believes in the vision and mission of other co-founders that her own vision has a great purpose and will also be realized with the group of visionaries who also wanted to be a change agent in enhancing lives of the disadvantaged people especially the children. The name Gawad Pag-asa, signifies a Hope for everyone that the organization will reach out to help and guide them unleash their full potentials as an individual and eventually realize their purpose in life and in their community.