So far our Goducate workers have been able to produce large quantities of quality organic fertilizer from unwanted grass and vegetation using our hard-working earthworms (African night crawlers).
Hard working worms
However, the price that our workers get from the buyers of organic fertilizer is low. This problem of being squeezed by middle-men is one of the main reasons why Asian farmers are stuck in the poverty cycle. To overcome this problem, our Goducate team is presently working with a partner to find the right markets in Manila and abroad.
Outsize organically fertilized long beans versus normal long beans
Another way we hope to bypass middle-men is to use the organic fertilizer ourselves. One of our workers tested the quality of our fertilizer by planting a row of long beans in his garden. He fertilized some of his plants with our fertilizer and the others with “normal” fertilizer. All the other conditions were identical – same seeds used, same soil, same method of planting and tending – so that the only difference was the fertilizer used.
The result was quite amazing. The plants that were fertilized with our organic fertilizer had long beans that were almost twice as long and more than twice as thick as the ones that were fertilized using “normal” fertilizers.
We will be further developing our production of organic fertilizer and growing of vegetables in our new model-farm in Laguna. We hope to encourage the poor to use the simple methods that we develop to produce good food for themselves. We will also be using these methods to teach our Goducate trainee workers in our Goducate Campsite in Iloilo to produce food for themselves.
One of Goducate’s main means to help poor Asians to help themselves is to help them to feed themselves with decent food.
Goducate believes that every child deserves decent nutrition and decent education.
From the 11th to the 23rd of January, I ate, slept, worked, and chatted with the children at the Goducate Children’s Home in Preyop, Cambodia. A typical day for a child in the home would go along something like this—wake up at crack of dawn to do assigned tasks or chores, have breakfast, attend school (in English) and Khmer classes, then back to doing assigned tasks in various part of… Continue reading
A nursing school that came to know about Goducate’s community work has chosen the Goducate Learning Center in Mabakan, Calaun, to be a center for practical training for their students. Hence 10 nursing students spent January training the locals in basic health awareness and doing health screenings.
Training session
Some 30 people, mostly mothers, attended… Continue reading
A fortnight ago parents of the children attending the Goducate Learning Center in Lalao, Laguna, were brought together to attend a session with their children. The session, called Mama and Me, was intended to emphasize to the parents the importance of good communication with their children and of teaching their children and supervising them while they do their homework and assignments. For the children, the intention was to impress on… Continue reading
At least this way, poor families could be able to experience a quality living.
I have been looking for a project such as exporting something that was produced by the poor.
I hope more young, talented and resourceful Asians will step forward and do our bit by helping Asians to help themselves. There’s no need to wait for the pot of gold to grow before one can help. If we do not address poverty issues at our backyard, who will?
The factors of production are:
land, labour, capital and maybe enterprise.
Put all together, and poor Asians indeed can help themselves.