Fernando's Story
My name is Fernando Briosos, founder of the Aeta Tribe Foundation. When I returned to the Philippines in 2015, I was struck by the extreme poverty of the Aeta tribes—far worse than what I experienced growing up. Children begged on highways for money, drank from polluted rivers, and fought over a single cup of water. After the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo destroyed their forests, rivers, and farmland, the Aeta people lost their homes, their water sources, and their ability to grow food. During my visit, we brought truckloads of water and food, yet it still wasn’t enough for the 600 families in the village. Watching children share a single banana and elders decide who would eat made it painfully clear how desperate their situation was.
The government’s displacement of the Aeta people left them isolated—without water systems, sanitation, electricity, or resources to survive—while facing discrimination for their ancestry and appearance. When I returned to the United States, I founded the Aeta Tribe Foundation to help protect Aeta children and rebuild their communities. By restoring spring waters, repairing wells, and supporting sustainable agriculture and livestock programs, we are helping families grow food, access clean water, and take steps toward self-sufficiency. Donations make this life-saving work possible—bringing water, food security, and hope to malnourished Aeta children so they can stay in school and dream of a better future.
Our Key Priorities
Priority 1:
Clean Water & Safe Infrastructure
The foundation focuses on restoring natural spring waters, planting protective trees, and repairing abandoned artesian wells that have gone without maintenance since the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption. By building reliable water systems, communal toilets, and handwashing stations in schools and villages, the Aeta communities gain safer, healthier daily living conditions. Each household also receives durable containers to collect and store clean water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and growing food—turning basic access to water into a lifeline for survival and stability.
Priority 2:
Child Health, Safety & Education Access
Improving children’s well-being begins with something as simple as providing slippers to prevent parasitic infections and allow young children to attend school safely. Through strong partnerships with local health and education agencies, the foundation works to eradicate parasitic diseases across Central Luzon by 2030. A significant part of this mission involves helping children born in remote areas obtain birth certificates, ensuring they can enroll in school and secure their right to a future. These efforts open the door for every Aeta child to grow up healthier, recognized, and educated.
Priority 3:
Livelihoods, Farming & Reforestation
Sustainable farming and livestock programs help Aeta families rebuild their forests and strengthen their livelihoods. By supplying communities with seeds that produce economic value—such as root crops, beans, okra, and eggplant—the foundation supports long-term food security rather than short-term relief. Providing water buffaloes to women in the villages empowers them with ownership over vital resources that offer milk, labor for cultivation, fertilizer, and natural fuel. Together, these initiatives restore the land, improve nutrition, and create stable, community-led pathways out of poverty.
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Registered: 501(c)(3) (EIN 47-3714375)