ART AID: Pio Arce (right) and Dr Murry Broadman

A HAMILTON-based agricultural engineer and a Filipino photographer have teamed up to help improve the lot of subsistence farmers in the southern Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palau.

Pio Arce, who comes originally from Manila, started working in the islands in the mid-1980's providing a communication link between tribal and missionary groups.

He moved his family to Mindinao in 1994 to work for the Philippine-based Tribal Mission Foundation International. It is a group which works to improve living conditions among isolated mountain peoples.

A professional photographer, he uses his depictions of life in isolated mountain villages as a method of raising funds for special projects - in this case to help pay for a bridge.

Pio first visited New Zealand to take part in an indigenous churches conference in Rotorua in 1997.

Hamilton's Murry Broadman, an agricultural engineer, works for Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd.

He met Pio in early '99 while working with hill country farmers as part of a Apostolic church initiative in Mindinao.

"Agriculture in these areas is about what it was 100 years ago in New Zealand. It is very basic. Even a road is a luxury."

Mr. Broadman said expeditions into the remote areas often meant tramping up hill through tropical heat and rafting out down rivers.

An exhibition of Pio Arce's photography can be seen in the Apostolic Church, 7pm on September 30.

For further information ca Murry Broadman, 025 952403