Bacolod NGO among Magsaysay Awardees
A Bacolod-based social enterprise that was recognized for its vision, technological innovations, and partnerships to improve lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia was among the awardees of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards.
The Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc (AIDFI), from the Philippines, was initially born out of the social havoc that accompanied the collapse of the sugar industry in Negros during the 1980s. Hundreds of workers and farmers were relocated and the survival of peasant families was severely threatened.
In the wake of this crisis, a small group of social activists which include Auke Idzenga, a Dutch marine engineer, decided to form AIDFI to tackle the basic needs of the affected farmers.
Agricultural manufacturing and technology development were their initial approach, but lacking funds and the loss of key members forced the organization to close down.
When Idzenga returned to Negros in 1997, however, AIDFI was revived, this time with a clearer focus on modernization technology to assist deprived, rural families.
AIDFI’s first success came when it redesigned an ancient and largely dumped technology called the ram pump.
The ram pump uses the natural kinetic energy of flowing water from rivers or springs, to push water uphill without the use of gas or electricity.
As reinvented by AIDFI, the ram pump can lift water to a high ground reservoir, with a volume of 1,500 to 72,000 liters of water per day.
In partnership with organizations and local governments, AIDFI also provided a whole “social package” which includes the organization of local water associations to supervise the water generation and distribution scheme.
AIDFI technicians supply clean, cheap water for household use, livestock raising, aquaculture, and small-scale agriculture to upland communities that do not have easy access to water.
Since the reinventing and introduction of the ram pump technology, AIDFI has fabricated, installed, and transferred 227 ram pumps that now benefit 184 upland communities in Negros Occidental and other provinces across the country.
Source: mb
A Bacolod-based social enterprise that was recognized for its vision, technological innovations, and partnerships to improve lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia was among the awardees of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards.
The Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc (AIDFI), from the Philippines, was initially born out of the social havoc that accompanied the collapse of the sugar industry in Negros during the 1980s. Hundreds of workers and farmers were relocated and the survival of peasant families was severely threatened.
In the wake of this crisis, a small group of social activists which include Auke Idzenga, a Dutch marine engineer, decided to form AIDFI to tackle the basic needs of the affected farmers.
Agricultural manufacturing and technology development were their initial approach, but lacking funds and the loss of key members forced the organization to close down.
When Idzenga returned to Negros in 1997, however, AIDFI was revived, this time with a clearer focus on modernization technology to assist deprived, rural families.
AIDFI’s first success came when it redesigned an ancient and largely dumped technology called the ram pump.
The ram pump uses the natural kinetic energy of flowing water from rivers or springs, to push water uphill without the use of gas or electricity.
As reinvented by AIDFI, the ram pump can lift water to a high ground reservoir, with a volume of 1,500 to 72,000 liters of water per day.
In partnership with organizations and local governments, AIDFI also provided a whole “social package” which includes the organization of local water associations to supervise the water generation and distribution scheme.
AIDFI technicians supply clean, cheap water for household use, livestock raising, aquaculture, and small-scale agriculture to upland communities that do not have easy access to water.
Since the reinventing and introduction of the ram pump technology, AIDFI has fabricated, installed, and transferred 227 ram pumps that now benefit 184 upland communities in Negros Occidental and other provinces across the country.
Source: mb
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