At 75, Inday Radia still holds on to the memories of the home where she once lived, in the village of Norhaya in the Philippines – a place reduced to rubble during the siege of nearby Marawi City in 2017. When the fighting broke out, her family was forced to flee.

Starting over was not easy. “We were given some assistance,” Inday recalls, “but it wasn’t enough to truly meet our daily needs, such as food. Meals were often uncertain,” she said.

The turning point came when she joined the Advancing Sustainable Livelihoods programme run by JRS Philippines. “I used to tend small plants, but here there’s hardly any land,” she said. Through the programme, she discovered bottle gardening – a simple and practical way to grow food in tight spaces. “They showed us how to use bottles, which crops do well in containers, and even how to make organic fertiliser,” she explained.

As her plants flourished, Inday expanded her garden, transplanting them into a small patch of soil behind her house, which soon became a sustainable source of food.

Inday not only rediscovered her love for gardening but also found in it a means to become self-reliant.

Soon, her modest garden was thriving with tomatoes and pechay. “If we don’t have anything to cook, we can always rely on the vegetables we grow,” she shared.

Her garden fed more than just her family—it began to nourish her community. Whenever a neighbour ran short of food, Inday would share her harvest. What began as a survival measure blossomed into a quiet act of solidarity.

*this article was originally published by JRS Asia Pacific.