...the Asian "Nobel" awardees

Filipino NGO leads 2011 'Magsaysay' awardees

By RAYMUND F. ANTONIO

August 31, 2011

Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines — They’ve always keep a low profile status, silently helping poor communities empower themselves with the use of environment-friendly technology.

 

But from now on, it’s going to be hard for this local nongovernment organization (NGO) to be inconspicuous, what with the Ramon Magsaysay award tucked under its belt.

The Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI) is the sole enterprise and Filipino NGO that was bequeathed with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, reputedly Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Other winners in this year’s awarding were individuals who made a mark of excellence in various fields.

AIDFI got the nod of the Magsaysay selection committee for its selfless effort to help rural and impoverished communities improve their lives with simple technology.

This year’s other awardees are: Harish Hande of India; Koul Panha of Cambodia; Tri Mumpuni of Indonesia; Nileema Mishra, India (for emergent leadership); and Hasanain Juaini, Indonesia.

The group introduced the ram pump technology, which brings water to upland communities and improve agricultural production.

For years, it has been a silent, if not lonely, endeavor for AIDFI, with few resources and lack of private and government support.

But the group persevered, realizing that doing good for the sake of good will bring in the rewards.

“We still have to grasp the full impact of it,” said Auke Idzenga, a Dutch marine engineer and co-founder and management committee head of AIDFI.

“So far, it is unbelievable, the media attention, the emails coming in,” he added.

Idzenga said AIDFI began its rural work in the 1990s, organizing labor unions and working with agrarian reform communities. Then, the group branched out to socio-economic projects after organizing and education workers on unionism.

The group started sowing it seeds in Negros province, at an auspicious time.

“Initially borne out of social turmoil that accompanied the collapse of the sugar industry in Negros during the 1980s. Hundreds of workers and farmers were displaced and the survival of peasant families was severely threatened,” was how the Magsaysay awards described AIDFI.

However, AIDFI was forced to close shop due to lack of funds and loss of key members.

In 1997, Idzenga revived the group with a clearer vision of technology innovation to help the rural poor.

It re-invented the ram pump technology, introduced it in rural communities in Negros whose economy is largely agricultural.

It was soon a matter of time before the idea, and the project expanded.

“It naturally expanded and became bigger in the Philippines,” Idzenga said.

With over 200 ram pumps installed in hundreds of communities in Negros Occidental, the group is now exporting the technology to Cambodia, Nepal, Columbia, and Afghanistan.

“When we did the first installation, no one knows about it. Then people started looking at the installation and word spread about it. From one community, we are now a technical service provider in many organizations in Cebu and some parts in Mindanao,” Idzenga said.

The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, in citing AIDFI, said that the enterprise “does not only introduce machinery, but a whole “social package” which includes community consultation, training of village technicians, transfer of ownership of the water system to the community and the organization of local water associations to manage the water generation and distribution system.”

Idzenga said they were not after winning any awards for their endeavor but he stressed it was fulfilling to be recognized for their efforts.

“I’m not expecting it, not at all. We won some international awards last year but never did I expect something like this. Not the Magsaysay awards because this is for special people and groups. It was really a big surprise when they called us,” he said.