Since it was founded, R2R has gone beyond Payatas and now has eight urban communities around Metro Manila. Ruiz finds commonality in these communities when it comes to the social issues they are facing. "It will take a few paragraphs or even a book to mention all the social issues, but if I could name one of the common threads, it is the lack of opportunities [to alleviate oneself from poverty]," Ruiz says. "Poverty is not just about having no financial resources. It is also about not having access to many opportunities that could lift people out of it."

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The biggest challenge for Ruiz and the co-founders was building trust with the artisans. "They have been struggling and striving to survive before we came in and have been promised much only to be disappointed," Ruiz recalls. The corrupt system has been deeply etched in the communities that it made like hope is the last thing to expect. "It took us years to build a relationship with our artisans. And just like any relationship, the trust-building will never stop."

And with this, Ruiz attributes the achievements of R2R not only to the awards and recognitions it has received over the years but, more importantly, the development in the lives of the artisans.

"The lives of our artisans and their children! Awards and recognitions are signals given by other people that you are doing something that inspires them. And that's great! But the real achievements are the actual fruits of the work. Today, the challenges are more 'par for the course' because we have learned so much along the way and built the right muscles to balance sustainability and profitability," Ruiz shares.

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Ruiz believes there is still more work to do, although R2R has been in the industry for a while now. "Now we are still learning new things, new ways to upcycle scraps, new ways to improve our social impact," she says. "Our status quo will be 'always striving to do better'. The social problems we are seeing now are even more complex, especially these days when the pandemic changed a lot of the so-called 'rules'. So if we ever feel that we have 'made it' already, that's when we stop growing."

Ruiz reiterates that we all need to do our part in achieving sustainable social development, the government included. "It is a powerful institution with the impact it creates truly scalable," Ruiz thinks. "But it still takes small, agile, and grassroots-based enterprises like R2R to bridge the realities on the ground and the policies and programmes being implemented by the government and vice versa." The R2R co-founder finds this 'connection' starts with safe spaces for collaboration. 

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"The government is such a game-changer and impact-scaler, which is also why I don't believe in being apolitical as a company," Ruiz says. "Having no stand when it comes to the future of our country is a stand-in and of itself. So while we should work with the government to create a more positive impact, we should also advocate for better leaders and leadership."

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