RAFI establishes four nurseries in Asturias

CEBU, Philippines - The GREENIN Philippines Program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) set up four nurseries in different schools in Asturias, Cebu during the School Community Brigade initiated by RAFI’s Education Development Unit last March 24.

These schools were Ubogon Elementary School, Manguaio Elementary School, Bago Elementary School, and Tubigagmanok Elementary School.

Apart from setting up the nurseries, the GREENIN Philippines Program also taught students the proper way of planting and caring for seedlings as well as proper waste disposal and management to maintain cleanliness in the schools and community.

At the same time, the program introduced a worm composting process that include used papers, dried leaves, grasses, leftovers, and animal manure being turned into feeds for night crawler worms or the manure worms for the vermicomposting.

“These endeavors can help schools generate income from the sale of seedlings,” Rowena Bandola-Alensonorin, executive director of the Integrated Development unit of RAFI, said.

The GREENIN Philippines Program also encouraged the schools to plant native trees because they can benefit a lot from these. Some of these trees are hambabawod, tugas, ilang-ilang, mangga-mangga, nangka, lomboy, bayabas, bakan, caimito, kakaw, chico, dakit, kolo, mansanitas, narra, santol, talisay, and sambag.

The GREENIN Philippines Program will continue to monitor and supervise the keeping of the nurseries until the schools can manage them on their own.

RAFI’s GREENIN Philippines Program, which stands for Generation REdemption and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines Program, seeks to develop, protect, enhance, and co-manage denuded forestlands, brush lands and degraded residual natural forests by planting native tree species.

It is a program under the Integrated Development focus area of RAFI, addressing the foundations needed to develop successful communities. Its other focus areas include Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Culture & Heritage, Leadership & Citizenship, and Education.

For more information about the GREENIN Philippines Program, please contact (032) 418-7234 loc. 519 and look for Vincent Roel Tabuñag, or visit www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph.  (FREEMAN)