Philippines
Initially, I felt powerless against our system. But meeting the participants in the project and especially the Filipinos, it gave me a lot of courage and hope and it pushed me to feel more like a citizen of this world and to think collectively.
The partner
Peace & Development Group (PDG) – NGO from the Negros Island – starts its activity on 1987 and is recognized as an NGO on 1988. Initially it focused on supporting agricultural workers and fishermen: its founders, seven development workers, gathered all of their human and professional resources in order to establish viable community structures that would serve as social and sustainable development drivers. Following the increase in poverty due to a drop on sugar prices and to the continuing human rights violations committed by large landowners and the military, PDG quickly expanded their field of action.
Currently, PDG supports local organizations and communities by offering them, amongst other things, seminars, debates and training on sustainable agriculture; agrarian reform and access to land; environmental protection; alternative health care… Their ultimate goal is to provide tools and support to the local initiatives in order to induce social change and better living conditions. PDG has become a model in sustainable rice cultivation, that is to say ecological and accessible to small peasants. It has created 13 peasant federations. These structuring and networking efforts are called people’s empowerment.
PDG’s Objectives: To generate a global reflection on development and to “educate” people on social change; to increase solidarity among rural communities; to support rural communities in their initiatives towards a sustainable development process (rehabilitation and protection of ecosystems).
Pdg's project with quinoa
Quinoa has worked with PDG since 1993. The NGO integrates the Belgian group in a community. The group works side by side with the families in their daily work, and they assist at the awareness raising seminaries and workshops about local challenges. The group also gets the opportunity of visiting and staying with other communities that face different challenges from their host community: fishermen community, farmers’ community, a community where big mining companies have established themselves, a slum community from Bacolod…
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