Services of the ABCDE Foundation

The full services of the ABCDE Foundation includes the following;

a. Land Redemption and Land Co-management. We redeem rice and corn lands, return this to the farmer under a co-management scheme and help the farmer manage the land.

b. Water-system development. We support small water system development which is gravity-fed and piped to near where the houses are located in the village.

c. Sanitation systems. We provide the full range of support from dry toilets, pour-flush toilets and simple urinals.

d. Vegetable gardening. We provide seeds and other inputs for vegetable raisers.

e. Draft and small animal loan. We provide draft and small animal loans to farmers to aid in farming.

Promoting Sustainable Sanitation in Zamboanga del Norte

2.1 billion of the world’s urban population use non-piped (non-sewered) sanitation technologies such as latrines, cesspools, septic tanks, or aqua privies to capture and contain their excreta (fecal matter and urine). These types of sanitation “solutions” tend to be unsustainable and often fail to provide public health benefits. The consequences for the poor are profound: an estimated 1.6 million children die each year from diarrheal disease caused by fecal-oral contamination. Waters are contaminated with sewage and excreta, and a pathogenic fecal film coats communities and land, particularly in urban areas (Bill and Melinda Gates:2011).

The situation is the same in the rural areas where sanitation technology is pour-flush and the use of septic tanks or if without it, the use of open-pit latrines which are breeding grounds of flies and diseases.

In the Philippines, 30 percent of the population defecates in the open and has no access to toilets either because they cannot build one, they have no space and or there is no water available as in the case of very compressed coastal habitations.

This situation leads to the following problems;

a.       29 million people defecate in the open thereby spreading diseases and parasites such as roundworms.

b.      These open defecation leads to deaths especially of children estimated at 300,000 children per year.

c.       Human waste flushed to the coastal areas or rivers are sources of e. coli and a host of other pathogens.

Meanwhile an allied concern is the severe land degradation and lack of fertilizer in the rural areas. Loss of soil fertility especially phosphorus is slow but dramatic and global. Commercial fertilizer uses a lot of fossil fuel to produce and is difficult to purchase especially for people earning less than a dollar a day, numbering 57 M Filipinos. This leads to a cycle of poverty and malnutrition and powerlessness.

Still another problem is the scarcity of water in both urban and rural areas due to a multiplicity of factors such as the El Nino phenomenon, loss of water in the aquifers, severe erosion and loss of trees that holds water, among host of factors. Using dry toilets will help solve this and save a lot of water that can instead be used for health and general hygiene.

Because of this, the ABCDE Foundation is promoting low-cost sustainable sanitation initiative in Zamboanga del Norte. The sanitation system comprise low-cost and robust pour-flush toilets, ecosan toilets and simple urinals.

Areas and assets of the ABCDE Foundation

Areas Covered:

1. 5 barangays in Dipolog City.
2. 8 barangays in Dapitan City.
3. 15 barangays Katipunan Municipality.
4. 4 barangays Polanco Municipality.

Resources and Assets:

• 7-hectare demonstration farm and training center located in Canibungan, Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte.
• Office and sleeping quarter for trainees and guests located in Turno, Dipolog City.
• 1 elf vehicle
• 4 motorcycles, office equipment and fixtures

Urban Youth Entrepreneurship Project

Disadvantaged Urban Youth Entrepreneurship, Organic Vegetable Production, Food Processing and Marketing Project

During this period, we continued with the conduct of additional meetings and information drive in order to include additional youths for the project. During the mid-term period, we have reached-out to 280 youths and this time we were able to cover 78 more.  This will be our final beneficiaries for the project (358 youths). The 78 youths are doing their vegetable gardening activities with the 280 youths who are continuing theirs. Instead of the plan to also include 2 other cities (Iligan and Cagayan de Oro) we decided to stick to Dipolog City only for logistical and administrative reasons. We were able to distribute additional 78 information packets and vegetable gardening manual, 215 seed packets and 78 sets of garden tools. The garden tools set include sprinkler, water container, pail, weeding tool, cultivator and hoe.

We are also establishing a 2,000 square meter vegetable seed production area in Canibungan, Dipolog City with the aim of self-sufficiency in vegetable seed production using our own local seed sources. One of the major expense of the project is vegetable seeds and we think we cannot be sustainable if we continue this so better produce our own. So far we are able to grow and produce vegetable seeds of legumes, okra, tomato, eggplant and moringa.

The project team working on this project is still composed of Annie Jane Lagawan, Benjie Cabiladas, 2 youth volunteers coming from the Philippine National Volunteer Service Agency and myself.

We are on the process of forming the youth clusters and we have already conducted 3 cluster formation and organizational trainings with 40 youth leaders.  We are also preparing for the conduct of vegetable-based cooking and food preparation training for the youth as well as the distribution of cooking utensils for the selected youth entrepreneurs. Marketing activities of vegetable-based products from the youth will also commence.  Update of these activities will be done on the final reporting period.

This project is implemented by the Association of Locally-Empowered Youth in Northern Mindanao (ALEY-NM) with support from the ABCDE Foundation.

Promoting Local Development in Zamboanga del Norte

Areas:  7 expansion barangays in Katipunan, Zamboanga del Norte and expansion in the Cities of Dipolog ( 7 barangays) and Dapitan.  Total of 14 barangays in all.

Project Background:

The ABCDE Foundation is implementing a proven and effective multi-pronged initiative comprising  community organizing, local capacity-building and direct delivery of pump-priming assets comprising land redemption, small and large animals, tree planting, water and sanitation and gardening, association building and mobilizing local cadre of “barefoot extension agents” in Katipunan Municipality, Zamboanga del Norte.  Our assessment of project activities shows a clear improvement in incomes due to a mix of farming support like vegetables, draft animals, small animals, contour farming, use of organic fertilizer via vermi-composting, among others.  The land redemption component emancipates the small farmer from indebtedness and gives back the land and its resources for him to till and generate livelihood.  The ecosan and ordinary toilet initiative is helping in the fight to contain capillariasis which is epidemic in the area and carried by fish and shrimps in the river with birds as the vector and transmitted via human feces when local people openly defecate for lack of toilet facilities. This new proposal is aimed at expanding this initiative to additional barangays in Katipunan and expanding work in the cities of Dipolog and Dapitan.  The main office of the ABCDE is based in Dipolog and Dapitan is only a few kilometers away.  The best practice generated in Katipunan Municipality will be the show-case and study tour area for new project beneficiaries.

The components of the project includes;

a.  Land redemption and small farm improvement of redeemed farms.

b.  Draft animal and small animal loan program.

c.  Ecological sanitation and vegetable gardening initiative.

d.  Small farm development, contour farming, fruit and timber tree production.

e.  Establishing a Subanen Indigenous People Learning and Livelihood Center.

f.  Community organizing and deployment of barefoot technicians.

All components is implemented in the expansion barangays in Katipunan and in Dipolog City while in Dapitan, we will only implement ecological sanitation and vegetable gardening activities.