How Building with Natural Elements Leads us to Balance

How Building with Natural Elements Leads us to Balance

May 2, 2023 | Activities, Uncategorized

Our Communications and Marketing Manager Sarah, along with 12 other participants from Olongapo, Las Pinas, Cavite, and Makati, attended the first section of the Natural Building Workshop hosted by Subli Farm in Batangas. 

Subli Farm, which is managed by the family of Asha Peri, is a permaculture farm which follows the seed-to-table model of growing food. The farm is also the venue of the Ecology of Food courses which aims to teach participants how they can get the most life force and nutrition from their food while they balance the need for great tasting meals. 

Asha and her mom Ludy (now 72) went to the Earth University at Navdanya in India in 2018. There, they learned from Dr. Vandana Shiva about the impact of GMOs on Indian Farming and made many parallels to the struggles Filipino Farmers face. From that point on, Asha became a kitchen activist, organizing events like the Food, Farming, Freedom course,  which offered a new view on sustainable food for Filipinos. 

At Subli farm, the yoga room, lecture room and the dormitory buildings are all built with earth materials and resources. The Natural Building Workshop is a renovation of their kitchen area. Sarah and other participants built benches for the dap-ay, two shelves for the music area and seed storage, and a wall to protect the area from the elements!

This event is a two part workshop. The first one that was just concluded taught participants how to mix the materials for earth building, how to build structures, and how to mold clay tiles. 

The second part of this workshop (May 13-14, 2023) will be concentrated on wattle and daub (using bamboo as rebars for wall structures), plastering, and finishing with clay.

These skills are essential to sustaining environmental balance; where nature uplifts our spirits and surrounds us with a healthy future. There is so much we can do with these skills like maybe building a seed library made of earth or building resilient homes for our community!

“Earth is forgiving. Natural building takes time, but the output will also stand the test of time. With natural building, there is no waste. When it is time to tear down the structure you have built, everything goes back to the earth, or you can reuse it again for another structure.” – Sarah Sabado

GSSP New Executive Director, Hal Moderates His First Community Conversation in Cebu!

GSSP New Executive Director, Hal Moderates His First Community Conversation in Cebu!

May 2, 2023 | CSS, Stories from the Field

Our new Philippines Executive Director, Hal Atienza has jumped right into community building alongside Efren Cabbigat, GSSP Program Manager, and Harry Paulino, Cebu Seed Production Coordinator.

Our partners from CAFEi ( Cafei Executive Director Teresa Ruelas and Cafei Lead Trainer and Programs Rina Mabalhin) and our GSS team traveled to CAFEi’s office in Guadalupe, Cebu City to hold a critical community conversation about seed sovereignty and establishing more community seed libraries throughout Cebu Province. 

One of GSS’ priorities for this year is to facilitate more focus group discussions with our partners. To enable us to learn and build together the next steps and visions for our collective work in building food and seed sovereignty. Focus group discussions like these allow us to hear feedback, challenges, and lessons learned from individuals who are seed saving and managing Seed Libraries. Every community members’ experiences are important. Some individuals have their own seed repositories and some want to learn more about how they could support existing future seed libraries.

At  GSS we value farmer led conversations. Farmers help direct and lead our programs, and focus group discussions make space for emerging conversation topics like guidelines of how they want to set up seed libraries, type of seeds they want to be available at seed libraries, seed library storage techniques, and more!

We are so glad that our new Philippines Executive Director, Hal, was able to join the rest of our GSSP Program Team and guide this significant community conversation with our partners at CAFEI and other key stakeholders.

See more photos taken during this community conversation

Visiting Farms and Planting Seeds of Community

Visiting Farms and Planting Seeds of Community

May 2, 2023 | BASS, Farmer Features

Efren Cabbigat, GSS Program Manager, and our partner farmer Fely Damilo (Benguet Association of Seed Savers (BASS) Treasurer) traveled to many farms and met with a few local government officials in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya to discuss future partnerships! 

This was our follow up program from the Seed School we hosted in Solano in March of this year. Farmer Damilo is committed to organizing opportunities for local farmers and empowering farmer lives. She currently works in and around Bagahabag Solano and led this partnership outreach activity! 

Farmers who attended our Seed School in March of this year also joined Fely and Efren in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya! They traveled to four farms; one in Barangay San Luis, one in Bagahabag, one in Poblacion, and one in Bonifacio. 

They also visited three Local Government Units (LGU); Provincial Agriculture Office in Bayombong and met with Provincial Agriculturist Absalom Baysa, met with a focal person, Ms. Noralyn Busa for Organic Agriculture, and met with the Municipal Agriculture Office, Ms. Shirley Lumicao. 

Touring these farms and meeting with the local government officials is pivotal to our community building and outreach. GSS is rooted in our farmer led programs and community leadership, that is why it is important for us to continue to seek potential partners. 

Officer Shirley Lumicao, at the Municipal Agriculture Office in Solano, spoke of high interest in holding a seed school with the farmer organization that they support. She encouraged the group to include seed education in their upcoming farmer meeting by May. 

One of the farms, Jayson Gundran’s farm, is ready to prepare for a potential seed production area while the other three farms need more land preparation. This is critical to know as they prepare to meet again to discuss further inspirations and methods! 

Efren and Farmer Damilo are currently assessing and exploring Solano to seek more potential Local Government support and partnership. This meeting was an important first step in our goals to establish another seed saving group and eventually a seed library in Solano!

Getting to Jayson Gundran’s farm

Farm of Jason Dundran BONIFACIO

Touring around the area

Efren, Manag Elizabeth, Fely Damilo

Meet Hal, Our New Philippines Executive Director!

Meet Hal, Our New Philippines Executive Director!

Apr 21, 2023 | Staff Introduction

Join us in welcoming Hal Atienza as our new Philippines Executive Director!

Hal has been a social development NGO practitioner for the past three decades building resilient sectors and communities through social accountability and participatory governance. He most recently was an Independent Development Consultant as an accompanier, resource-person, and facilitator-trainer for capacity-building activities, strategic planning workshops, and organizational development and management processes. 

Hal is based in Cebu City, and we are thrilled to have his expertise and leadership as we head into this next exciting stage of our growth and work in the Philippines. 

Welcome to the team Hal! 

Message from Sherry Manning, Founder and CEO welcoming Hal.

“We are thrilled to have attracted such an experienced and passionate newPhilippines Executive Director to guide us into our next chapter of work in the Philippines. Hal brings decades of experience in growing and building successful NGOs and community organizing networks. I know that under his leadership our continued growth and success will be transformational. A very warm welcome to Hal from the entire GSS Community!”

Message from Bea Crisostomo, Philippines Board Chair welcoming Hal. 

“On behalf of the Philippines Board of Directors, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Hal as the new Philippines Executive Director. We are thrilled to have you on board and are confident that your experience and expertise will help us continue to grow and have a deeper impact. We are excited to see what we can accomplish together and are grateful to have you on board!”

Here is more about Hal:

What are you most excited about experiencing at GSS?

Seeds are the bearers of food. Saving our seeds is also saving our food culture. Seed saving is the core of regenerative farming and biodiversity. I have been working with farmers for many years. Community seed banking has always been the clamor of marginalized farmers. And I have found that excitement and reason to work with GSS. It espouses natural and organic seed saving, growing, and protection.

What is one strength you are excited to bring to GSS?

Running a country program demands a different set of skills and capacities. My experience and background in community organizing, organizational development, program management, governance, and leadership development encompass my abilities and desires to make GSS relevant and sustainable.

 

What is your favorite book?

I believe in the “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire. But my romantic side always loves watching the Clint Eastwood movie and reading the book by Robert James Waller, “Bridges of Madison County” including the photo collection book of its character, Robert Kincaid.

 

What is your passion?

Ever since college, I have been passionate about being with people, working with them, and for them, whom Khalil Gibran described as the deprived, oppressed, poor, and exploited (DOPE). My favorite nook is the kitchen because I love cooking and preparing food for my family. They love my signature penne pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce and the aromatic honey-glazed chicken. I also enjoy tending to my ornamental and herb plant collections.

 

What do you want to achieve in this role?

I hope to sustain what the founder has started in the Philippines’ seed-saving program and become the model for expansion work and mainstreaming worldwide. That way, we can make seed saving a global movement to address food security, food sufficiency, and food sovereignty.

Welcome to the GSS team, Hal!