1,000 Farmers

6/28/10

We have been so busy with a huge project with 1,000 white corn farmers that we have not been able to keep up with our blog. The white corn farmers are dry subsistence farmers whose crops were first wiped out by a typhoon and their second crop by the drought. (Refer to Blog 3-29, "North to Tuguegarao") We were blessed to find two wonderful partners, first the human interest story department of a local TV station (ABS CBN) and the Philippine Marines. For this project we held a workshop for 200 farm families at a time teaching them how to organically grow a garden of vegetables and fruit to supplement their diet. Each day a new group was taught by agriculturist in class for 4 hours and in the fields for 4 hours. We slanted this to mom's and kids thinking they were the ones who would tend the "kitchen gardens" near their homes while the men worked in the fields. We were wrong 2/3 of the participants were men. After the training the participants received fruit and vegetable seedlings. They also were given corn seed and fertilizer for up to 2 hectares. The turn out was phenomenal. We had people lined up at the door hours before the class started. The people were so enthusiastic and grateful, that they willing volunteered for hours setting up and hauling in by hand over 225 tons of corn seed and fertilizer. ABS CBN helped with the organization of the project and had the contacts to get the government and local support we needed. Also because we had the events covered by the news media LDS Charities received a lot of good press. The Marines were fantastic, they provided crowd control, registration and individual instruction for the hands on field work. We flew up there with ABS CBN last week-end to check on progress. Here is a quote from a text message we received from the news reporter that says it all: "We are AWED at what we're seeing here! (if awed is the right word). The seedlings have been planted, backyards that used to be idle for months are now homes to squash and ampalaya seedlings. Neighbors lent their idle backyards to those who have no space of their own, 4 to 8 farmers sharing with the plots. This is bayanihan at its BEST!" We have give credit to where credit is due and acknowledge the Lords hand in blessing these humble farmers. I'd like to end this with another text message quote from Brother Hector, he is the farmer we visited in the first place and it is his family that is pictured in the 3-29 blog. "Prayer works best when nothing else works at all. When the situation is hopeless, prayer fosters hope. God never leaves His people alone, without a witness or guide. Living by faith sometimes means walking in the dark, but it never means living without light"