Philippines Postage Stamp

As I write this post, I’m working on a  myriad of last minute details for the upcoming Angkor Photo Workshop.

Last week, I finished my first ever Philippines photo tour, and my brain is still in “Philippines mode” so I thought I would share some “Philippines news” with all of you.

Drum roll please………..this is a first for me……and it’s kind of exciting.

I never really expected that I would have one of my images used on a postage stamp, but to my surprise, the Philippine Post Office created a postage stamp using an image a shot for CARD Bank, a micro-finance institution partner of my long term client; Freedom From Hunger.

I must say that it’s not what I would consider to be one of my best images, but I didn’t get to pick it, nor did I shoot it as it appears on the stamp. Actually, the background shot is a photograph that I shot along the side of the road and the hands exchanging money is from a completely different image. The stamp is a composite of the two images.

Freedom From Hunger asked me for some basic, landscape type photos, that could be used as “backgrounds”. Well, sure enough, the very simple shot of a rice field and a line of palm trees was used by the Philippines Post office as a background for the two hands, exchanging money.

The lesson here is that after more than a decade of shooting images for NGOs, I have learned that not all of the photos I take for a client will be award winners, and that some, rather mundane ones, are often quite useful.

Below is the press release from the Philippine Post Office:

http://cardbankph.com/wp_cardbankph/?p=292

Click here to see the Press Release

The Philippine Postal Corporation is coming up with the 25th Anniversary of the CARD MRI (Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually Reinforcing Institutions) stamps, which will be issued on April 25, 2011. It is classified as a “Commemorative” kind of issue with a denomination of P 7.00 and quantity of 106,000 pieces.

A group of 15 rural development practitioners organized the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Inc. as a social development foundation in December 1986 as a concerted response to the growing poverty incidence in depressed communities in Regions IV and V, particularly in the provinces of Laguna, Quezon, Mindoro Oriental, Mindoro Occidental, Marinduque, Masbate and the Bicol Region. Its vision has always been to establish a bank created for, owned and managed by landless rural women. In the words of CARD Founding President and now Managing Director, Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip, Only by creating a vehicle for asset ownership, can we ensure that the poor will gain control over their own resources and over their own destiny.

To learn more about Card Bank, click here for their website.

Here’s the text from the Philippine Post office press release:

The Philippine Postal Corporation is coming up with the 25th Anniversary of the CARD MRI (Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually Reinforcing Institutions) stamps, which will be issued on April 25, 2011. It is classified as a “Commemorative” kind of issue with a denomination of P 7.00 and quantity of 106,000 pieces.

A group of 15 rural development practitioners organized the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Inc. as a social development foundation in December 1986 as a concerted response to the growing poverty incidence in depressed communities in Regions IV and V, particularly in the provinces of Laguna, Quezon, Mindoro Oriental, Mindoro Occidental, Marinduque, Masbate and the Bicol Region. Its vision has always been to establish a bank created for, owned and managed by landless rural women. In the words of CARD Founding President and now Managing Director, Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip, Only by creating a vehicle for asset ownership, can we ensure that the poor will gain control over their own resources and over their own destiny. Read more on the history of CARD MRI on its official website (cardbankph.com/wp_cardbankph/).

The technical description of the 25th Anniversary of the CARD MRI (Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually Reinforcing Institutions) stamps are as follows:

Kind of Issue: Commemorative

Denomination and Quantity: Php7.00 / 106,000 pieces

Date of Issue: April 25, 2011

Last date of Sale: April 24, 2012 (or as stocks allow)

Size: 40 mm x 30 mm.

Perforation: 14

Sheet Composition: 40 on (4 x 10)

Kind of Printing: Litho offset

Paper: Imported Unwatermarked

Printer: Amstar Company, Inc.

Designer: Mr. Victorino M. Serevo, Philpost
Ms. Mae M. Catibog, CARD MRI

Photo Credits: Mr. Karl Grobl of Freedom From Hunger, USA

Design Coordinators: Dr. Ngo Tiong Tak
Elenita D.L. San Diego

Design: The exchange of money between two hands that show Php20.00 bills and an agricultural land in the background. It also shows the 25 years logo of CARD MRI, which means Center for Agriculture and Rural Development
Mutually Reinforcing Institutions.