Davao Foundation adopts Home Bio System

On Aug. 18, Davao City kicks off the Kadayawan – the annual thanksgiving festival that is an expression of the Davaoeños appreciation for all the blessings and grace received for the past year.

The Kadayawan is dubbed mother of all festivals. Amid the color, funfare, music and celebration, the Kadayawan sa Davao Foundation Inc. (KDSFI), has another worthwhile goal – the Home Bio System (HBS) – an environmental program that forms part of the foundation’s ecological and socio-civic thrust.

"The Foundation is not really just for the festivals, we‘re also into ecology," said Froilan Ampil, one of the board members of the foundation. "While the festival is indeed our main project every year, we have decided to take our thanksgiving a step further by putting up something that will not just thank Mother Nature but actually do something to project her."

Another board member, Jose Nobleza Jr., agrees that the foundation should be addressing other concerns aside from the festival. "The home bio system is a technology developed to address the huge problem of the government to solve their garbage problem," Nobleza explains, adding that they had their test or pilot project with 15 public schools and a barangay in Davao, which was successful.

"We taught them how the HBS system works and now they are making money from it," Nobleza said.

The HBS works on the principle of fermentation that widely occurs in nature. The HBS is patterned from the Korean-based farming and we‘ve adapted it to both urban and country homes, using homes resources like leftovers-rice, vegetables, fruits, fish, trash, animal bones, plastic cans, etc. The home bio system is solid waste management at the home level.

Ampil said that of the 15 public elementary schools that initially adopted the HBS training workshops that were developed, at least eight were able to raise funds because their garden produce were enhanced by the main byproduct of the HBS system – organic fertilizer.

He said that Davao City Schools Division Superintendent Susana B. Estigoy was so impressed by the reports she received from school principals that she has recommended that the HBS workshop be part of the curricula for public schools.

The project chooses public schools as a proving ground for their HBS workshops because the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or RA 9003 mandates that an ecology course be taught in both public and private elementary and high schools.

Estigoy saw that logic in the simple system – all you need is the simple faith of a child, teach him about ecological responsibility and he can probably teach his parents something new about caring for the environment," Nobleza said in describing how the HBS fulfilled both the need for providing a new way to deal with garbage on the home level and fulfilling the mandate of RA 9003.

Ampil said that the municipality of Sta Cruz was the test area on the barangay level and just like in schools, barangay residents were able to reduce their garbage output, noting that almost 70 percent of home waste was biodegradable.

Barangay Sta. Cruz residents were given garbage collection coupons, which they would give to trash collectors whenever they had garbage that needed collection.

Ampil said that based on that system, if a resident runs out of coupons, his garbage will not be collected and they would have buy more coupons at about P500. "Kung tamad ka ubos agad ang 500 mo, walang kokolekta ng basura mo."

"With HBS, the residents found out they could reduce their garbage output and save the money the would have otherwise used to buy more coupons," Ampil said.

The KDSFI is looking to teach the HBS to more schools, but Ampil said they had to raise funds so that the schools could get the materials they need to start with. To know more about the HBS call Froilan Ampil at the KDSFI (082) 2246319.