Philippines – Page 125 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2010-05-192010-05-25

Goducate training center site report (1)

General Assessment of Site:

Cursory assessment of the existing resources in the area revealed that although mahogany trees dominate the population of indigenous tree species (bamboo, madre de cacao, Ipil-ipil, etc.), about 50 mango trees (30 of which are fruit bearing), several coconut, siniguelas, santol, banana, camachile, cacao, and coffee trees are also prominent. These are very positive externalities linked with the acquisition of the camp. At their harvestable age alone, the mahogany trees with an estimated population of at least 4,000 and priced at P10,000 per tree, the monetary equivalent is P40,000,000. Even with a conservative shadow price of 0.25 of the gross tree value, this easily translates to a significant pecuniary amount of P10,000,000. If the implicit value of standing fruit trees is included, this will result in a marginal amount of P200,000. Hence, it can be imputed that the acquisition price of P2,400,000 pales in comparison with the actual market value of the property.

The presence of shallow water table in the upper agricultural portion of the area augurs well towards meeting the future domestic and irrigation water need at the campsite throughout the year. The observed two shallow wells had plenty of water even during the dry season peak. Obviously, the presence of mahogany and indigenous tree species along the surrounding hillsides is seen as big contributor to the gradual release of water while mitigating the otherwise serious soil erosion that could occur in the watershed area during the rainy months.

2010-05-17

Herbal Soap Factory; Goducate Livelihood project in Laguna Philippines

The title “Herbal Soap Factory” sounds impressive. In most of our minds it conjures up the image of a spotless, high-tech factory with white-coated lab technicians. However, the Goducate Herbal Soap Factory is in a little wooden Goducate Learning Center building. And it is run by a few old ladies (one a widow) who have learned to make herbal soap for a livelihood.

The technique of making herbal soap has been learned by Jonathan, the Goducate Learning Center supervisor at Mabakan, Laguna, from a government sponsored course. He has since transferred the skills to these ladies. The equipment is rudimentary – a few pails, many plastic molds to contain the liquid soap, some paper to wrap the soap. The raw materials are simple – caustic soda, vegetable oil and herbal essence, eg. crushed papaya, crushed guava leaves.

The ladies patiently stir the mixture of caustic soda, oil and herbal essence for about 30 minutes before the dark brown liquid is poured into the plastic molds. When the dark brown liquid is left to cool, it turns into pure white soap! When the soap is hard enough it is knocked out of its mold and left to “mature” for a month before it can be used.

The soap is then wrapped in simple paper and sold to their neighbors for 12 pesos (about US 20 cents). The proceeds from the sale of the soap are shared between the Goducate Center, the soap makers and those who sell the soap. So far sales are satisfactory. However, efforts are being made to produce smaller pieces of soap to sell to the nearby hot-spring resorts for their guests.

Though the amount earned is small, soap-making encourages the spirit of enterprise among these people. Jonathan has also learned how to make dish-washing liquid and will be teaching the students at Goducate Learning Center to make and sell this soon.

Goducate wants to help Filipinos to help themselves through enterprise.

2010-05-142010-05-13

Fat worms produce fat long beans! (Goducate Livelihood project in Laguna, Philippines)

So far our Goducate workers have been able to produce large quantities of quality organic fertilizer from unwanted grass and vegetation using our hard-working earthworms (African night crawlers).

However, the price that our workers get from the buyers of organic fertilizer is low. This problem of being squeezed by middle-men is one of the main reasons why Asian farmers are stuck in the poverty cycle. To overcome this problem, our Goducate team is presently working with a partner to find the right markets in Manila and abroad.

Outsize organically fertilized long beans versus normal long beans

Another way we hope to bypass middle-men is to use the organic fertilizer ourselves. One of our workers tested the quality of our fertilizer by planting a row of long beans in his garden. He fertilized some of his plants with our fertilizer and the others with “normal” fertilizer. All the other conditions were identical – same seeds used, same soil, same method of planting and tending – so that the only difference was the fertilizer used.

The result was quite amazing. The plants that were fertilized with our organic fertilizer had long beans that were almost twice as long and more than twice as thick as the ones that were fertilized using “normal” fertilizers.

We will be further developing our production of organic fertilizer and growing of vegetables in our new model-farm in Laguna. We hope to encourage the poor to use the simple methods that we develop to produce good food for themselves. We will also be using these methods to teach our Goducate trainee workers in our Goducate Campsite in Iloilo to produce food for themselves.

One of Goducate’s main means to help poor Asians to help themselves is to help them to feed themselves with decent food.

Goducate believes that every child deserves decent nutrition and decent education.