[Illac Diaz] JERSEY CITY, NJ – Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy welcomes Illac Diaz, founder of MyShelter Foundation and Isang Litrong Liwanag (1 Liter of Light) during the Filipino flag raising ceremony at 3:30 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012 in City Hall, 280 Grove Street.
Scheduled to attend the flag raising ceremony are Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, Consul General Mario Lopez de Leon, Jr., Illac Diaz, elected officials, and members of PAFCOM. The event is open to the public and is sponsored by the Philippine-American Friendship Day Parade & Festival Committee (PAFCOM).
Illac Diaz is dubbed as a social entrepreneur and renowned philanthropist whose work empowers communities and provides a significant global impact and influence. On Friday, June 1, 2012 at 9:00am at Hudson Catholic, he will be speaking regarding his latest innovation and project, Isang Litrong Liwanag (1 Liter of Light).
Isang Litrong Liwanag (1 Liter of Light), MyShelter Foundation’s latest venture, is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly solar bottle light to underprivileged communities worldwide. Designed and developed along with students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Solar Bottle Light is rooted on the principle of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.
1 Liter of Light is a program inspired by many innovations from around the world. Many cultures have used glass bottles to allow lighting through the roof, and Alfredo Moser from Brazil began pioneering methods of experimenting with plastic bottles. There have been modifications to the Philippine model, which has begun to grow it to scale, and it is the hope of MyShelter Foundation that “others take their work and continue to grow the concept, spreading it rapidly to empower and lighten the lives of people.
PAFCOM has partnered with MyShelter Foundation to work on the 1 Liter of Light Program in the east coast.
As part of the project, a film crew will be following Liter of Light Team during this week to capture moments that will be included in the final version of “Liter of Light” documentary. Illac Diaz has been invited to speak at the The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development on June 20-22 which will be held in Brazil and will present the program.
Illac Diaz is a son of Ramon, an accomplished visual artist and brother of Gloria Diaz, the first Filipina Miss Universe. He earned his Bachelors Degree in Management Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University and obtained a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) with graduate thesis: “Shanties to Jobs: Creating a Migrant Center in Manila.”
Then he later left to study in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston with Urban Planning, Course II – Urban Studies and Planning. In 2008, he took Masters of Political Administration, MPA 1 in Harvard.
Diaz is the youngest AIM alumnus to receive an Honors and Prestige Award because of Pier One. In 2004 he received a three-in-a-row award. He was a recipient of an Everyday Hero Special Award from the Readers Digest Asia and an Entrepreneur Award from the 1st Johnny Walker Social Award. He was runner-up in New York’s Next Big Idea International Design Competition. He got the First for Social Entrepreneurship from TOYM Award in 2005.
He also received a citation from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva as one of the “Young Global Leaders of 2008”.
