When the volcanic Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, its lava and ashes destroyed many surrounding villages – including the traditional homeland of the Ayta, indigenous people descending from the first inhabitants of the Philippines. Today, resettled elsewhere on Luzon island, they are trying to preserve their traditional culture and community integrity through education and theatre. These efforts are supported by the Ayta organisation PBAZ, part of the Education for Life Foundation. Going back to the abandoned village is one way of keeping memories alive.
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Yesterday, Ka Carling of LAKAS and PBAZ called me on the celfone: “The ceremony granting us the CADT to the 15,000 hectares will happen in the Botolan town plaza on January 14. Please come.”
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go, since I have a previous engagement. But I and the rest of ELF will be there not only in spirit, but in other ways.
It’s one thing to get the title to their ancestral domain, which significantly includes Mt. Pinatubo. It’s another thing to be ale to develop it to benefit the Aeta communities while conserving biodiversity and protecting the forests and watersheds.
The Aeta leader-graduates and educators who have formed PBAZ – Paaralang Bayan ng Ayta sa Zambales, are the main strategic partners of ELF.
ELF met with some Aeta leaders a few years after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 displaced the Aeta communities from their homeland and dispersed them to different resettlement areas. Since then, they have struggled to sustain their livelihood, and their culture and identity. Integral to this struggle is their effort to have their rights recognized to their ancestral domain.
When ELF decided on a strategic partnership with PBAZ, Paaralang Bayan ng mga Ayta sa Zambales, I proposed that we name our program “Developing Aeta LEADERS.”
I explained that LEADERS is an acronym for Leaders, Educators, Advocates, for Development, Empowerment, Resilience, and Sustainability.
All the key words are part of the standard development NGO vocabulary. The only word that is relatively different is “resilience.” And yet, it may be one of the most central concept for the Aetas.
Paaralang Bayan ng mga Ayta sa Zambales, PBAZ, is an initiative of the Ayta leader-graduates of ELF.
PBAZ started along the lines of ELF’s vision of “a community of leaders and learners.”
Instead of the ELF staff continuing to handle the leadership formation program of the Aytas, we challenged them to handle the courses themselves.
From that first step of taking over the leadership courses, the Ayta leader-educators expanded the program of PBAZ to take care of ALS in basic education for Ayta out of school youth and adults.
ELF provides lifelong learning services to communities of grassroots leader-learners. For 2009 we have the color coded learning series in our logo:
Green for agriculture and environment, specifically organic farming in rural and urban areas, and biodiversity conservation
Blue for education on grassroots leadership and citizenship.
Purple for gender and women’s lifelong learning.
Red for advocacy and campaigns e.g. Education for All, Participatory Local Governance.
Yellow for the lifelong agenda of grassroots communities from renewable energy to spirituality.