july-august 2010 news - GreenEarth Heritage Foundation

JULY-AUGUST 2010 NEWS
Hello Everyone!
Our month of July was a month of intense sowing at the farm!
Now that the rains have come every afternoon, we have to take full advantage of the blessing of water each and every day. From sunrise to sundown, we are very busy expanding our organic kitchen garden, planting
more of our coconut seedlings all over the land, cleaning, and staking
wherever needed.
JULY was a time to prepare for the big things coming our way in AUGUST.
Now that we have gone past our first year, we have become
eligible for accreditation by the Philippine Council for NGO
Certification (PCNC). Accreditation allows corporate donors to
enjoy tax deductions, thus, giving them the incentive to help
NGO programs and causes.
We prepared and submitted all required documentation by the
PCNC and we hurdled their first step successfully in July. They
then gave us dates—August 12 and 13—for their on-site
evaluation visits both in our administrative office in Makati and
our farm in San Miguel, Bulacan.
During the two-day evaluation visit, they reviewed various
documents and did one-on-one interviews with our board
members, staff and beneficiaries.
Pastor Harry Manalo
(right) welcomes PCNC
evaluators, Michelle Tuazon (left) and Bernadette
Yap (middle), to our farm.
They visited GreenEarth
on August 13 for PCNC’s
second day of evaluation.
WHAT IS PCNC?
The Philippine Council for NGO Certification or PCNC is a private voluntary, non-stock, nonprofit corporation that will serve as a service organization whose main function is to certify non-profit organizations that meet established minimum criteria for financial management and accountability in the service
to underprivileged Filipinos.
Source: http://www.pcnc.com.ph/about-us.html
Bernadette and Michelle toured our farm guided by Pastor
Harry and Pastor Renz. They visited our vermiculture
shed, organic kitchen garden, and plantations of mango
and moringa.
Both learned about the environmental benefits of organic
agriculture, and were also encouraged to adopt the green
lifestyle after hearing about the health hazards of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides.
Bernadette who serves as Executive Director
of AgriBusiness and Countryside Development Foundation, looks at our vermiculture
operations with Pastor Harry Manalo , our
community organizer and Bible teacher.
After touring our farm, she said that she’s
happy to discover that a group advocating
organic agriculture exists in Bulacan. She
believes that GreenEarth can help the locals
gain interest in organic farming to “bring
back agriculture where it belongs”— the
vast, fertile lands of rural Philippines.
PCNC evaluators interview 3 of our
farmer beneficiaries (right), Albert (in
blue) , Nolasco (middle) and Salvacion (back to front).
They talked about life in the area before and after GreenEarth, focusing
on the positive developments our organization brought to the community.
A moment with our staff at the
farm— Pastor Florencio Razon
(right), our agricultural consultant, orients the evaluators of
the activities in the farm.
We maximized the airwaves in the past two months
with exposures in television and radio, both
local and international!
Our founder, Dr. Mylene Matti was invited for an interview at the Kingdom
Builders' Program of DZFE 98.7 FM. Kingdom Builders features individuals and organizations that zealously work for the expansion of God’s
Kingdom. Its double broadcast hit the airwaves in July and August, reaping a tree planter, a number of enthusiastic listeners who joined our movement on Facebook, and a group of college students who decided to write
feature stories on GreenEarth in their English class.
We welcome this opportunity to reach thousands of listeners with our mission. We wish to thank Ms. Tiffany Liong, DZFE station manager and Mr.
Bert Robledo, the program host, for having us.
Bert Robledo (right), Kingdom Builder's Radio Program Host with
our founder Dr. Mylene Matti (left).
Dr Mylene Matti (left) and Adobo Nation's host Michi Valeriano discussing GreenEarth’s project focus
which is the Children's Learning Center.
On August 14, GreenEarth was also
featured in the talk show Adobo Nation
under ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel.
The airing of our eight-minute feature
segment marked the start of our fundraising stateside. We focused on the
building of a learning center on-site to
address the educational deficiencies of
our children. We are hoping we can
break ground in October and complete
the project by December, our Pamaskong Handog (Christmas offering) to
our farming community!
We were delighted to receive word from the Watson Associates Volunteerism Experience (WAVE)
team of Towers Watson Philippines in July about
their decision to be "one with us" this year in our reforestation efforts.
In preparation for this visit slated
for the first week of August, they
held a heart-warming cake raffle
fundraiser within their ranks. As a
result, they were able to garner
enough funds to donated two
truckloads of balete and neem
seedlings! Praise the LORD for
these much-needed tree varieties
now at GreenEarth.
Neem is an effective
insect repellent, thus,
we’ve planted it all
around our organic
kitchen garden to protect our vegetables
from pests that feed
on their leaves.
Balete is an endemic
forest hardwood that
promotes biodiversity. It is a pioneering
tree recommended
for reforestation of
denuded lands.
Before crossing our bamboo bridge into the farm, the tree-planters were
greeted by our adorable children, “Welcome to GreenEarth!”
Our volunteers dedicated one whole day for tree-planting and reforestation
on August 7. Over 30 individuals joined this first tree-planting activity by
corporate volunteers on our second year. They planted forest hardwoods
and additional fruit-bearing trees as well.
Our tree planters take a break from their reforestation activity under the shade
of our century-old mango tree. The WAVE team of tree planters was also
joined by Ms. Ruth Ang (first row, second from left). She heard about
GreenEarth from the Kingdom Builders Program and also offered to come and
help on our next tree-planting activity.
Tisha Cruz, our advisor on Early Childhood Education and Literacy Development, visited the farm on August 15 together with her husband, Joey, and her
friends, TJ and Rio Manotoc. She personally assessed the reading comprehension, spelling and learning competencies of our children. According to
Tisha, some of them are behind their
expected cognitive skills based on their
Our early reading and literacy adviser,
Tisha Cruz, evaluating Mae, one of
ages. But she said that what really
GreenEarth's children. She is 16 years old
and only in second grade.
caught her attention was their
“eagerness to learn.”
“The kids are a smart bunch…and they are excited to start the literacy
program. In fact, Mae, one of the children, took the assessment test
twice! They are lovable and so fun to teach…. They have the potential;
we just have to give them the opportunity,” she said.
Rio takes
time to teach
the children
how to read
and write.
TJ (left) and
Joey (right) touring our farm before our hearty
lunch.
On August 17, our Chairman,
James Patrick Matti, presented
the vision and mission of
GreenEarth to the newly elected
Bulacan Governor, Willy SyAlvarado.
James came to the governor's
home as scheduled thinking it was
a one-on-one meeting with the
governor as requested. We didn't
know God had an amazing plan!
Our Chairman, James Patrick Matti, presenting before the Governor of Bulacan
and over a hundred pastors and church
workers in the area.
There apparently was a gathering that evening with Pastors
and church workers of Bulacan. The governor wanted James
to present with everyone in attendance to kill several birds
with one stone.
Over a hundred members of Bulacan's pastoral community
ended up becoming our captive audience along with the governor that evening. We truly appreciate their warm and enthusiastic response to our mission.
A number of them approached us expressing kind intention to
help. One pastor called the following day wondering if
GreenEarth would be interested in taking over the development of 80 hectares of idle land in their area. Perhaps one
day the LORD will expand the reach of GreenEarth. Right
now, we have over 100 hectares under our belt to be busy
with for many years to come.
Gov. Willy Sy-Alvarado (left) talks with our Chairman after the presentation.
In the presentation, James focused on our river plight and the
much-needed farm-to-market infrastructure in Sitio Malapad na
Parang, San Miguel, Bulacan. This could be a concrete bridge or a
temporary hanging bridge to help the farmers bring their produce
to the market .
At the same time, children will no longer cross dangerous waters
when the infrastructure is built.
Our farmers are hardworking people who are doing what it takes to have an honest living---crossing the river by foot to reach our pick-up vehicle in order to deliver their weekly produce.
Only three months into our existence as a foundation, we made it
high priority to appeal for this much-needed bridge on behalf of the
entire underserved community. We sought a meeting and were
granted audience by Sec. Emil Sadain, the Executive Director of
DPWH's President’s Bridge Program as early as August 2009.
We submitted all necessary requirements as part of this appeal a
year ago, which includes endorsement letters from the governor,
mayor, the chief of the rangers camp, etc. One year later, we continue to make our voice heard with the newly-elected administration
serving the province of Bulacan. And we are relentlessly following
up our appeal with the President Bridge Program which is still under the executive directorship of Sec. Sadain. We are praying for
God's favor.
We have also researched alternative programs used in other
countries that can help our community, like the pulley transport system in Nepal and a hanging bridge in Bohol. We will
grab every opportunity to alleviate the burden of our people.
Nepal is full of rivers and this is what they have done. This set-up
costs $10,000, roughly 450,000 pesos. Better than nothing as they
say, as we await the construction of this elusive bridge that the DPWH
says will take Php 53 million to build! We have broached these ideas
to the Governor of Bulacan.
If there is a will, there is a way! We admire
what they have done in Bohol! We are in
search for an engineer who can design something similar for our area.
We welcome to our team this month,
Shereen Razon!
She is our new teacher at the farm! With
Tisha’s guidance, she helps our children
improve on their reading, writing, comprehension and communication skills. Back in
college, she financed her schooling by
teaching English to children and foreign
students.
Shereen Razon
Cum Laude, Bachelor of Arts in
Speech Communication
University of the Philippines
Diliman
Shereen found out about GreenEarth after
joining her father in a Pastor’s Conference
held in our farm last June. Incidentally,
she also hails from San Miguel, Bulacan.
She heard about our mission from the
presentation of our Community Organizer
and Bible Teacher, and saw the need of
our children. Barely a month old in the organization, Shereen said she is now well
adjusted with the children because they
are “very down-to-earth and lovable.”
As part of our commitment to the environment,
every staff member at GreenEarth participates
in the daily tree planting activity of our farmers.
“Jesus said, „Let the
little children come
to me, and do not
hinder them, for the
kingdom of heaven
belongs to such as
these.‟”
-Matthew 19:14
We also welcome
Pastor Florencio Razon!
Shereen is not the only addition to our team. We also
open our doors to her father, Pastor Florencio Razon!
Pastor Renz holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering
from Central Luzon State University.
He practiced his profession before he felt called by the
LORD to full-time pastoral ministry in 2004. He founded
the “Jesus Loves You City Church,” a fledgling local
church of nine months. Hearing about our need for an agriculturist, he volunteered his service knowing that his
background can be of use to our programs on organic agriculture. Pastor Renz visits the farm thrice a week to oversee our farmers in their work.
We will forever remember the months of JULY and
AUGUST 2010 as the commencement of outpouring of
grassroots donations both from the Philippines and the
United States in our history as a fledgling organization.
Aside from material donations, we finally got our paypal and credit card
mechanism up and running on our website in August and we rejoice in the
partnership of Filipino-Americans who have become our pillars of support:
Joanne Oliva-Balinghasay of Marshfield, Wisconsin
Aris and Ditas Gloria of San Francisco, California
Noel de Leon of Stamford, Connecticut
Jerome Poblador of Hayward, CA
Ed and Annabelle Santos of San Ramon, CA
Valerie Pagendarm of Redwood City, CA
Grace Villalon of Far Rockaway, NY
Visit this page and find out how you can help us in our programs on Agriculture, Community Development and the building of an on-site learning center. Copy and paste
the link below on your web browser to go to GreenEarth’s donation page:
http://greenearthheritage.org/donate.php
We are extremely blessed and thankful for our very kind, energetic and proactive advisory board member in Early Reading and Literacy Development, Ms.
Tisha Cruz. Through her highly effective shout-out to her high school batchmates, GreenEarth instantly received an outpouring of books, workbooks, puzzles, a laptop and shoes and clothing for all ages even before we could have
our Children's Learning Center up!
ASSUMPTION HIGH SCHOOL
BATCH OF ‘87
Jenny Ko
Nenita Zagala
Peaches Martinez
Karla Campos
Jill Busuego
Johanna Carpo
Carol Co
Peachy Zulueta
Tammy Malig
Clair Barberis
Yvonne Romualdez
Petti Santos
Lally Rementilla
Christine Aurelio
Sandy Piit-velhagen
Jenna Llamas Lopez
Rowena Cuyco
Rica Lopez de-Jesus
Tana De Leon
Cymbeline Perez
Lala Cruz Dy
Marianne Perez
Queenie L. Laurel
Chilly Colina Lopez
Tania Fricke-Lichauco
FRIENDS OF
TISHA
Nini de Leon
Bambi Sy
Julie Morales
Love Santiago
Anna Joy Nolido
Ricky and Bubu Andres
Gayle Rayo
Winnie Sacro
Anna Reyes
Rochelle Santiago
In addition to Tisha's "village" of donors above, we wish to thank Mrs. Perly
Gonzalez and her mother, Mrs. Linda Perez who donated encyclopedia sets
and Mrs. Linda Bautista and Josie Pineda of South San Francisco, CA for their
kind clothes donations for our farming community.
Thank you Dr. Joan Mercado-de Guzman for
the toothbrushes and toothpastes! Would you believe that before GreenEarth came, NONE of our
farmers and their children owned toothbrushes?
They were only taught the habit after they received their first set of toothbrushes and toothpastes last Christmas. Your kind donation will
help them continue the good habit to keep their
teeth clean and strong.
We are overwhelmed by all of your love and generosity. Your
family at GreenEarth has set up a time to pray for all of you,
our invaluable partners in ministry individually.
God bless you all for choosing to give!
FROM THE HEARTS OF ALL OF US AT GREENEARTH
TO YOURS,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR MISSION.
WE TRUST THAT YOU WILL SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT OUR
CAUSE AND CONSIDER SUPPORTING US.
THE GOOD LORD BLESS YOU RICHLY!