Save the Sacred Forest and Build Tribal Economy

                                                                         Project Report 

                                          "Build Tribal Economy and Create Natures Defense"

Organization: Tribes and Natures Defenders Inc.

Project name: " TRIBAL WOMEN LED PROJECT  SUPPORT FOR GARDENING ROOT CROPS PRODUCTION"

Project location: Migsaliding Kalasan Tribal Village

Project General Objectives:

 The following are the project goals and objectives:

 1. To build tribal Eonomy and Create Natures Defense

 Attainment of goals

 The Project brough the following biggest generated results of the grant:

 The project brought the tribal women members participate in the discussion of buillding tribal economy and creating natures defense. .

1. Women had been very active on giving their voices to fight poverty and established gardening and root crops production.
2. The project created spaces for the tribal women members to bring their feelings and insights on how to bring their kids  as the future eco-warriors, food resileit and culture bearer for the next generation.
3. Successfully gathered the tribal women to do women led food security projects to address poverty during the unexpected calamities.

 Discuss how your project met 

The project was successfully met since all the tribal women members from different community participated the women led community gardening and root crops production projects to ensure the foods in every household.

 Activities:

Please list the activities performed during this reporting period:

Activity 1: Project team collected all needed documents for the project reporting

Activity 2: Project team monitored the tribal leaders, youth, women and elders about the plan of actions.

Activity 3: Conducted unified sacred forest immersion to have nature resources inventory

Activity 4. Protect team prepared the financial report

1. Method:

Please answer only those questions that relate to your project.

• Did the project increase community resilience and strengthen Indigenous self-determination?

Yes, the project gave and increased community resiliency where tribal members are confident protect their identity, culture and tradition towards strengthening the rights to self-determination to show the non-indigenous peoples that there is sacred uniqueness of living in the remaining sacred forest.

• Did the project improve physical/environmental health (clean water/sanitation, protection/restoration of traditional plants or food sources, traditional healing practices, sustainable/traditional livelihoods, etc.)?

The project helped improve the strengthening of the sacred the traditional healing practices and environmental health. The project encouraged the tribal members to protect the natures and cultures towards cultural survival.

• Did the project increase traditional spiritual practices or skills, such as language, arts, ceremony and/or rituals?

The project increased traditional connection and sacred spiritual practices where young people, tribal members and women learned how to chant, dance and conduct sacred rituals for the next generation.

• Did the project help youth involvement in leadership activities and/or developing leadership skills?

The project brought the youth into the future leaders where they had been involved in the community decision making to develop their talents and skills to lead the community as the next tradition bearers.

• Were there significant intergenerational experiences, created because of this project, where youth were invited to work directly with community Elders (ie. transmission of knowledge/wisdom, ceremonial participation, revitalizing language, etc?)

The project of tribal encounter created a space for the community to work together, exchanged ideas and collaborate to retain the sacred identity of the tribes. Youth will be the treasure of the next generations and very significantly involved in the transmission of know from elders to the youth to protect tribal identity, language and sacred ceremonies.

1. Collaboration and Partnership

A collaboration is understood as the relationship that is established with a person, a community or an organization to achieve something in the short or medium term, generally to carry out some activity (or activities) to achieve your particular objectives. A partnership is understood as a relationship that is established with a person, a community or an organization in the long term, which helps you achieve the general objective of your project and that can be maintained for a longer time for the development of other projects.

Please share what collaborations and partnerships were established during this reporting period and what benefits your organization and/or community obtained from it. The organization and community were very happy that collaborations are the best way to bring success in the community and organization. During the reporting period, project team and the tribal members made a successful partnership that benefits the organization and community.

1. Impact

From your perspective, what were the most important changes observed in the communities in general terms? Why do you think these changes occurred? Please share any experiences that you would repeat in future projects and that could be shared with other organizations.

It is very inspiring that the project supported by the Sacred Fire Foundation brought significant changes towards the Higa-onon tribal communities. The project created the results of the active participation of the youth and women group that brough inclusive cooperation among the cultural communities. Before, young people had been passive, they had been afraid and stagnant to participate community activities.

But now, the elders and community leaders had been inspired that women and youth are the frontlines of pushing the activities into success. These big changes strengthen the relationship and connection of the tribal members that can be repeated in the future project partnerships. These important changes will be the model that can be replicated to the other organizations towards cultural survival.

1. Lessons Learned

What have you learned? What if anything would you do differently in the future? Overall and based on your proposed goals, would you consider the project was successful? It is important to remember that every experience, including those that might have been different from what was originally planned or expected, are a chance to improve, to grow, and plan what might work better in the future. Please explain your answer.

The project brought learnings that connect the culture and nature. We learned that the sacred culture connected to sacred natures where connectivity had been the essential core of living. The learning that we had will be the foundation of the future activities to empower the tribes and protecting the sacred forest.

Every learning, experienced and originally planned had been the tool for us to push our expected potentials towards preserving our sacred culture and mother earth. We knew that we are not perfect, but those experiences need to be improved daily to grow as the mirror development and grow our leadership in the better confrontation of future challenges. We need to grow and move on with love and prosperity for the mother earth.