I’ve never been to The Philippines. For many Indians, yours truly included, a mention of the country brings memories of expensive shoes, and more shoes, courtesy former First Lady, Imelda Marcos. Then, there are those grainy frames of its typhoon-hit countryside, or Manila’s infamous drug lords who become fodder in Hollywood flicks. At times, if you’re lucky while channel-surfing, the odd travel-meets-food show will introduce the viewer to the joys of Filipino cuisine — a heady mix of Spanish influences and local flavours.

But there’s much more — as we discovered while digging deeper into a story about an applause-worthy initiative spearheaded by its youth. After The Philippines was rocked by back-to-back natural disasters in 2013 — a typhoon and an earthquake, heritage experts, mentored by senior planners and architects, came together, and activated the local population to create a crowd-sourced heritage map that plotted all its important natural and man-made sites. The website went live in September, and now, this mini revolution to save its treasures, appears to be in safe hands.