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!

 

Farmer Letty Bisco On Her Experience As A Woman Farmer

Farmer Letty Bisco On Her Experience As A Woman Farmer

Mar 29, 2023 | BASS, Farmer Features

In celebration of International Women’s Month this 2023, we are honored to feature Letty Bisco on our blog. Known to the GSSP Community as “Manang Letty”, she is currently the President of the Benguet Association of Seed Savers (BASS). Manang Letty was one of the students of the very first seed school ever conducted by Global Seed Savers Philippines (at the time, we were still known as Friends of ENCA). Along with her other classmates during the 2015 seed school, Manang Letty became a founding member of BASS. She has been instrumental in bringing seed-saving practices to several farms in the Cordilleras and is a beacon of hope for many who know her.

Continue on to the interview below to learn more about Letty’s experience as a woman farmer. 

Why is farming any different for women? In your family, did women farm or are you a first-generation woman farmer?

Traditionally the woman’s role in the family is working at home, and managing household chores. But since no one is taking the farming role, I took the initiative to continue working at my family farm. There are some difficulties for women to work in farms given the difference in physical strength compared to men.

I had to hire help for the heavy tasks on the farm which adds to the cost of farming. Being the woman owner of the farm though, I had the financial freedom to spend my own money. I also have the freedom and control over the farm and I don’t have to answer to a boss since I am the sole owner.


I realized this sense of financial freedom when I assumed responsibility as the sole breadwinner in the family due to the passing of my husband. I continued farming even in his absence.

Back in the early days of parenthood, I remember merely working in the household doing domestic chores. I was confined at home. It was a liberating experience when I did farming because I could choose to go out of the house anytime, and that I also have control over my earnings. I’m not a first generation farmer since my mother was a farmer too. These days, however, I am the only woman farmer in the family. I am also the only farmer since we don’t have any men farmers either. We all received education, which influenced my siblings to pursue other things other than farming. I thought, such a waste of our land if I don’t take on continuing farming. 

What do you consider a successful year at your farm? 

When the climate is stable, the harvest is good. When there are no calamities, the yield is optimal. I recall 2015 when the climate was favorable. There was rain all year-round and not a single major typhoon struck my farm. Because of that, production was high, and my farm sales were also high during that year. 

What, for you, is the next step for women farmers? 

Women farmers have to be open minded with agricultural innovations. They have to maintain their commitment to farming. Farming is not simple, you need to learn how to forecast what are best crops to plant, and when to plant particular crops. This is tedious and scientific which requires patience. I say it is scientific because you do trial and error. You need to experience and learn for you to get better results. 

If you could share one piece of advice with the future generation of women in agriculture, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid of taking risks in experimenting and experiencing new things, because only in this way will you explore what are the best methods in farming. For future generations of women farmers, take hold of that concern and love for your family as this will guide you in your farming; this will translate into you finding ways to practice healthy and safe food production.