Mike and Becky, from Vertical Roots Canada, have created this Go Fund Me for our first farmer, and dear friend, Roni whose son has been very sick and was diagnosed with Lymphoma this past week. Their medical bills have already surpassed 100,000 Pesos which is $2500 CND and they have not even started the treatment for cancer. The doctors are very positive this is treatable, but there are still so many medical costs to come. Without Roni and the research and development that took place through the commercial farms we built in the Philippines with him by our side, we would not be where we are today.

(Roni and Ming with their son Ranier.)

Who is Roni? Roni is a big part of why Vertical Roots exists today. We have known Roni for over 20 years and met when we lived in the Philippines when we first got married. 15 years later we returned and found him and his family to be local farmers. We started discussing aquaponics and the opportunity it could bring to their families and their local community and by the time we had returned to Canada he had torn down his chicken coop and started to build a test aquaponics setup.

(Mike and Ronie at our first aquaponics test site in the Philippines)

It worked and we brought our family back to the Philippines and lived there for 7 months to set up and launch the commercial aquaponics site with him, his family, and local farmers who had the desire to make a change for their families and their country's food supply.

(Commercial "Highland Aquaponics" farm Shilan, Benguet, Philippines)

We hope to ease their burden in the coming months and look to give back to someone who gave so much time and energy to us. It is our hope to raise enough for them to live and pay their medical bills, so they can not have to worry or be weighed down in any way as their son starts treatment.

Roni and his wife Ming have 3 children, their eldest Rainier has been in the hospital for the last month looking for answers as to the pain and the sickness. They also have a daughter in high school and a son in elementary. They cannot work full-time, as one of them is always at the hospital with their son and they do not have any medical insurance, which is not uncommon in their country.