Mindanaotoday.com | Teaching beyond Borders: From ‘maestra’ to ‘mag-uuma’
By: Giftfemae Catiil
EVER notice how a stone thrown on the surface of the water bounces off, creating ripples before it sinks?
That is how impactful a simple word or action may spread before you even realize.
Like how a young farmer, Lonalyn Amper Sulatan or “Kenken” as people familiarly call her, expressed her gratitude to her benefactor, Greenminds Incorporated.
From “maestro” to “mag-uuma,” how an elementary education graduate ended up teaching Organic Agriculture (OA) to the marginalized population.
Humble beginnings
Kenken grew up in the small town of Sitio Gupaco Sinuda, in the municipality of the landlocked, Kitaotao, Bukidnon.
At 29, she may seem to have always envisioned the path she has taken now as she animatedly converses with a confident smile on her face but she clarifies that her primary dream was to be an elementary school teacher.
A humble beginning which led her to her current love, agriculture. Enter GreenMinds Incorporated.
One of Greenminds’ advocacies is to support the less fortunate students earn their degrees through scholarships. Kenken is one of the lucky few given the chance to be sponsored from her second semester in third year until graduation.
She was an active volunteer in Greenminds Inc., which eventually landed her first job as an administrative aide in 2014, and eight years later, as a training officer of Umanika Eco-Cultural Farm, a Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA) of the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center X (ATI-RTC X) based in El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental.
How did she cope up with the big difference of the expectations of instructing a class full of kids to the reality of teaching organic agriculture to various communities? This is an area she never delved before.
“Training. Unsa imo gitudlo sa uban, kabalo pud dapat ka (You should be knowledgeable of what you teach to others),” she said.
Her first exposure was a 10-day training organized by the ATI-RTC X in Training Management.
She was a blank sheet. She did not have prior knowledge on agriculture.
Although her degree is remotely related to agriculture, she trained, gained new knowledge, and did a great job during the training proper. Add to that, her teaching and mentoring skills came in handy in terms of sharing what she has learned. You can only teach the things you have understood and have tried so yourself.
Teaching beyond borders
The primary goal of Greenminds is to help the marginalized communities in Mindanao (in this case, the indigenous people or the “lumad”) become self-reliant by teaching them skills especially in organic farming while promoting their own products like the processed nuts in partnership with government entities like the ATI-RTC X and other non-government organizations.
They started with the “lumad” in the region and now has reached across borders. Kenken, as one of its training officers has been one of the primary batches to be deployed overseas.
In a small country composed of little islands off the east coast of Australia, lies the Republic of Vanuatu.
It is currently one of the recipients of the joint effort of Greenminds Incorporated, and their foreign NGO partner, Tear Fund New Zealand.
They promote sustainable farming and eco-friendlier option for the natives and the environment like the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology or SALT.
As per definition, SALT 1 Technology Guide is a simple and low-cost technology of soil conservation and food crop production that allow farmers to generate sufficient income through the harvested crops all year round.
It can also be easily replicated by farmers and so making it uncomplicated to teach.
Today, the products made by the locals of Vanuatu are supplied to cruise ships and has helped them sustain their needs.
Kenken also participated in rendering her services to their Fiji Chapter, a little tropical archipelago in the South Pacific, and north of Auckland, New Zealand.
They help the sexually-exploited women learn organic farming so they can stand up for themselves and generate their own income.
Currently, their organization is helping Solomon Islands, while Kenken stayed on the sidelines, this time as she assisted in their training preparation.
They typically train communities for at least 10 days to determine their needs in order to keep helping them.
They continue to contact and monitor these communities and deploy trainers almost annually (only halted during the pandemic) as they strive to achieve their advocacy of helping the ones in need. Starting from the Lumad and our local farmers up to our brothers and sisters beyond the borders.
Community building
The road to community development is long and rigorous. It is time-consuming, costly and will never be smooth-sailing.
But as long as people like Kenken continue to teach agriculture and reach out to these forgotten side of the population, that stone will create boundless ripples.
Someday these communities that they have trained will also return the gratitude as they continue the legacy by sharing this earned knowledge of organic farming to the vulnerable and the marginalized.
Kenken shares that whatever you set your mind into doing, take that challenge. Like how she overcame her feeling of uncertainties which led her to understand and love agriculture.
In a sense, she did not deviate from her first love. From a teacher to a training officer, both teach knowledge to those who need it the most.
A town is not made by one man. To build a community, you will need everyone’s support. If you can be a little stone today, why not be it?
Humanity does not distinguish color and agriculture is for all.
Sources:
1. https://www.facebook.com/
2. https://www.facebook.com/
3. https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-2/
4. https://www.uwhealth.org/news/
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