ATOM BOND 04

MINUTES OF THE MEETING – Aug. 20-21, 2005

Venue : Gamu, Isabela (Payoga-Kapatagan)

 

 

 

Attendance :          

 

POMCAT :               Jed Guinto , Emil Paz , Maricel Jamito, Nana Azon

SALIS      :             Cecile Sipin , Aida Balgomera, Lana Decena ,

                                 Cristy Incognito

TOMMUANAN  :   Evit Sumosot, Nestor Caponoy

LARIDE:                 Vic Manato , Tino Dasmariñas

CABIOKID :           Sammy Nicolas , Lito Agustin

Payoga :              Julie Flores. Geraldine Denna, Elmer Mabuti

Volens                 Bert Peeters

 

Presiding Officer : Bert Peeters

 

Agenda:

 

Part I    Welcome/Orientation to Payoga Work

             Tour of Center and Community

 

Part II   Business Meeting

 

1.     Reading and approval of Minutes of Meeting (July 8, 2005)

2.     Updates/Situationer by Bond partners

 

2.1   POMCAT

·        Report on the result of the exchange trip

·        Caringo Island and result

2.2   PGX

·        GROS Involvement

·        Trade link with the partners

2.3   TOMMUANAN

·        Funding issue

2.4   LARIDE

2.5   CABIOKID

·        Hiring of new staff

·        MOA with PAWB/DENR

 

 

 

2.6   SALIS

·        Partnership with DEWERELD SCHOOL

·        Development in NAIC

2.7   PAYOGA- KAPATAGAN

 

3.     Preparations for GROS Visit in July 2006

·        Organization of host families

·        List of groups to visit

·        Final itinerary

4.     Cooperants

·        Questionnaire and info documents

·        Limitations

5.     Bond office concerns

·        Hiring of new staff

·        Bank account and general finances

6.     Other matters

   

     Part III Election of a new set of officers

 

  

PROCEEDINGS:

 

         Part I: Preliminaries/ Orientation to Payoga Work

 

1.     The group except for Bert and Tolits left Manila at 8:00 p.m. on August 19 and arrived  in Gamu, Isabela   by  5:30 a.m August 2O.

 

After breakfast, the meeting started at 10:30 a.m.  with the introduction of each participants.

 

2. Payoga, as host organization for this meeting, gave the BOND members  an orientation about their work . They traced the history of Payoga from the time it was established in 1985.

 

      It was known then as the  Diocese  Youth Program.   It’s objective was to

      organize the youth and  promote social justice especially within the Christian

      community. They organized different activities such as recruitment of leaders

      from the  barrios,  coordination of children’s program and leadership training. By

     1986 they committed and involved themselves to various church activities to

     strengthen  commitment and service to the Diocese.

    

     In  October 25 , 1987 its name DCS was changed to Payoga meaning Parish Youth

     of Gamu. Many activities took place the following years such as conduct of

     creative seminars for the youth,  livelihood program for parents , basic agro-eco

     training and many more.

 

     In 1992 Payoga was reorganized  as  a cooperative and assumed the name of

     Payoga-Kapatagan Cooperative. The objective was  to organize people and

     provide livelihood opportunities for the upliftment of their living condition , to

     achieve a more humane society through education, financial and organizational

     support. One of their programs is giving credit assistance to  members with a

     minimum loan of P5,000 to a maximum  of P25,000.

 

    They now produce and sell organic fertilizer named “Green Friend Fertilizer which

    uses biotechnology.  As of today demand for their product is very high but their

    supply is inadequate because of lack of capital .  Another problem that  has to be

    addressed immediately  is  the lack of space for production.

 

Part II . Business Meeting

 

1.     Minutes of the last meeting in July  was read and approved by

the partners.

 

2.     Updates/Situationer by Bond Partners

 

2.1 POMCAT

            -    POMCAT Exchange with Niljen, Belgium in March

                 was supported by the local government. Jed, Macel and

                 Ogie represented the organization in this exchange trip.

-         Eight students and 5 teachers of Belgium in turn came to the Philippines in the  project areas  of POMCAT in  San Pascual and San Antonio They stayed in native homes for three weeks  for exposure to Philippine conditions..

-         In San Antonio the students  helped  improve the cocounut dryer of the barangay and in San Pascual they  constructed a water wheel.

-         The teachers and students had  good exposure also in Caringo Island a former resort area that was destroyed by a typhoon and is  being opened  for rehabilitation and a possible partnership with POMCAT. The resort has rich possibilities as destination for  people  who  prefer eco-tourism from conventional form of tourism.  This concept is now being worked at by POMCAT  with Forum Task Force in Caringo Island.

 

-         Overall, the exchange yielded  positive results

 

2.2  TOMUANNAN

 

          They   only have two volunteers left   in the office,

           Manong Evit and Ricky, but  work proceeds  in their demo

           farm  despite the lean force. Their main focus now is seed

           collection. They already have tilapia on their fishpond.

 

          They need assistance in  project proposal writing  as well as

          other  expertise  which they can use in the farm.

 

2.3  LARIDE

·        Module for advocacy on SSS that they are now working on will be finalized this September

·        Waste segregation in their Antipolo project is one big problem

·        As of the present,  their Day Care Center and the Sitio Library are now integrated and they are starting the training on computer literacy in the center.

·        They are requesting the assistance of SALIS in putting up an elementary school in Antipolo.

 

2.4  CABIOKID

·        Signing of MOA with PAWB/DENR will be on Sept 8 or 9

·        They had just attended the Barangay consultative meeting with LGU’s with regards to the phases of work in  Libon , Albay, the same process  is happening  in  Benito Soliven.

·        Farmers from Albay will have a seminar in Cabiokid on Oct 1 & 2, 2005.

 

2.5  SALIS

·        The summer break temporarily stopped communication with Dewereld school . They will send  newsetter of the school  to update them of the different activities in  SALIS.

·        They are requesting the help of Tino in furniture making for Naic

·        In September they are inviting Cabiokid to train people from  Naic. An exposure trip is being organized to help Naic folks to start their permaculture project.

2.6  Payoga

·        They have a contract with Plan International (an NGO funded by Dutch Embassy) for one year starting this September for facilitating community projects.  They will give a seminar on organic vegetable production, gardening and handicraft making.

·        Because of increasing demands of their compost fertilizer Payoga came up with  alternative plans to meet the demand of their consumers  one of which is  contract-composting .  Their partners are:

-         LGU in Gamu which will be funded by Country Side Dev. Of Congressman Yu (CDF) and the provincial government

-         members of Payoga , operating  on a scheme of

    50-50% sharing of capital.

Agreement: The partners will  do the composting and Payoga will focus on quality control and marketing the product.

·        They will also submit a proposal to the  Undersecretary - Bureau of Soil and Waste Management (BSWM ) which is interested in composting .

 

2.7  Volens

·        Immersion practicum for volunteers from Volens

·        Advocacy on sustainable development issues, renewable energy etc.

 

2.8  PPA – not present

 

       3.   Preparations for GROS visit July 2006

            Objectives  and plans  for GROS visit were discussed  using the draft

            plan forwarded by Mieke Holvoet. Partners who will be involved in

            this visit  were asked ato submit   comments and suggestions  as

            well as  anticipated expenses such as costing for food, transportation

            etc. Final  itinerary should be submitted by the end of September.

                                                                                                                        

      4.   Cooperants

       Bert  explained again  the nature  of Volens  cooperant services

       under the new conditions. If anyone  wishes  to get a copy of the

       questionnaire and info documents  regarding cooperants , please

       contact Bert email address:  bertpeeters@skyinet

 

Day 2, Aug. 21:  Workshop /Planning  - Bond’s Urgent Concerns

    

1.     The workshop started with a review of experiences, strength and weaknesses being experienced by partners

 

Strength	Weaknesses
SALIS Understands the concept of sustainable development	Limited interaction with other organizations
Laride Continuous communication and interaction within the partners	Exposure of Bond to other members Is limited
Payoga Increasing  self-reliance	Communication facilities
Pomcat Enriched by the recent exchange Support for medicinal project of Nana    Azon Continuous communication and email to the secretariat	Distance from other partners
Tommuanan Their distance is not a hindrance in attending meetings in Manila..	Limited knowledge and technology
Cabiokid Provides opportunity to gather groups from different places under  one objective Was able to project the importance of each partner under Bond Serves  as an instrument to  expose people to permaculture.	Lack of Staff, financially unstable
Volens While Volens gradually fades away the importance of Bond increases	Lack of support of Volens to Bond
Other observations: Bond meetings are well-attended	Many projects are starting but still lack implementation. Communication thru email

 

 

2.     Identified urgent needs: project proposal-making and module writing  for the various trainings being conducted by partners

3.     There is an urgent need to put up  Bond Website. In this regard,  profile of partners will have to be prepared and fed on website.

4.     Principles of Atom Bond

The group  reviewed  the principles  that Bond uphold:

How does each of the principles reflect in individual partner organization. What we preach is what we do.  We become practicing consultants.

 

        The following proposals  have been  adopted  to enhance Bond

         operations

a.      self- survey to determine  the location of  each of the partners in promoting  the organization’s objectives.

b.     Local Exchange Training (LET)  to develop expertise and facilitate exchange  of goods and  services  among  advocates  of sustainable development

c.     Proceed  with  the conceptualization of projects, train in project-

     proposal writing

d.     Find support  for the partners’  individual projects

e.      Prepare  website/newsletter

f.       Expertise-building ex. Oil extraction (Pomcat)

      Pomcat volunteered to prepare the manual for oil-extraction in the

      light of  the popularity  of virgin oil

g.     Improve directory of resources

-Directory of what we can give and what we want to receive

               - Capacities of each organization

-          

      

 

Resolution : Live the 6 principles of permaculture as agreed upon by the  members.

 

Strategies  ranked according to agreed priorities of partners

1.     Improve our directory of resources

2.     Website/newsletter

3.     Write-up about individual projects, example Nana Azon’s project.

4.     Explore possibilities to develop the  LET system (Local Exchange and Trading System)

 

5.     Self-assessment .We prepare a questionnaire to locate where our organization is in the list of principle

6.     The following projects to build expertise shall be facilitated by Bond

-oil extractions

-project proposal writing  reflecting bond principles) bond trademark

                     -module writing

                     -Skills for LGU  led program

7.     Improve our exchange program (what capacities do we need to develop to  help us facilitate  the increasing request for exposure and voluntary work.

8.     Translate to Tagalog the name of Atombond

9.     Membership and application procedures

 

 

 Part III – Election of Officers

 

The final phase of the meeting elected Bond’s new set of officers who will take turn quarterly in coordinating Bond activites.

 

Sec/Admin                 -        Bert/Tolits

Finance                      -        Sam/Aida

Project Dev.               -        Julie/Jed

Networking                -        Vic/Evit

Publications               -        Cecile/Emmie

               Info/Website

 

 

    A  trip  to _________, the town  adjoining  Gamu,  culminated the two-

    Day  meeeting of Bond. The group  visited the  municipality’s composting

    Project  and was  finally feted to a dinner by the  town mayor.  The night

   trip back to Manila  was  a restful one.

 

 

 

Prepared by:   Cecilia C. Sipin

                        Lana A. Decena