Hello! Please introduce yourself.
I’m Tom Graham, co-founder of MAD (Make A Difference)
Travel, a social enterprise I co-founded with Raf Dionisio.
We started MAD around three years ago as a travel platform
that allows us to create fun and inspiring experiences in
partnership with local communities across the Philippines.
Opposite page: In Sitio Sagpat,
Zambales, photographed by Ayen
Dela Torre, Below: Tom Graham,
Bottom: Raf Dionisio
What inspired you to start MAD Travel?
The idea for MAD Travel grew out of my own life-
changing journey in the Philippines. Around four years ago,
I was travelling the world and writing business reports. I
arrived in the Philippines expecting to stay here only a couple
of months until, shortly before I was set to leave, I had the
opportunity to meet and interview Tony Meloto, the founder
of Gawad Kalinga. A 30-minute interview turned into a
three-hour discussion on meaning, purpose and the immense
potential of the Philippines. Before we were done, Tito urged
me to ‘ditch’ the shirt and tie I was wearing and to discover
the ‘genius’ of the Filipino poor through spending a year
living in GK communities across the Philippines.
I decided to tell the stories of that journey in a book titled
The Genius of the Poor. But deep down, I didn't want people
just to read about these communities. I also wanted them to
discover the genius for themselves. That’s when I got together
with Raf, who was also a GK volunteer at the time and an
entrepreneur in the travel industry. Together, we wanted to see
how travel could inspire more people to venture outside their
regular comfort zones and have truly meaningful experiences.
How did you put MAD Travel together? What were
some of the challenges you encountered along the way?
Fortunately, our business was not very capital-intensive
at the beginning, so our main challenges were with finding
people who shared our mission and could offer different kinds
of skills sets. In fact, there are so many talented people in the
Philippines who are also seeking more purposeful careers, that
it has been possible for us to grow quite fast so far.
How does MAD Travel work?
We partner with communities (whether GK or indigenous
groups such as the Aetas) to develop fun and inspiring
experiences for travelers. Aside from those communities, we
also work with other travel agencies, hotels, etc, and work on
marketing these experiences to the travel community.
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