Students learn positive values in Antipolo’s ‘teaching garden’

JONATHAN  Rabimbi, a high school graduate from the Light of the Lord Christian School (LLCS) in Barangay San Jose in Antipolo City, used to see the world as “troubled” and “chaotic.”

Coming from a poor family living in an informal settlement in the city, he had once written a poem about his sense of hopelessness and dismay: “I am confused, driven to despair, while others can be so selfish, loving themselves while wrecking the lives of others, (including) many innocent ones … What shall I do? Will I be victorious despite the sad experiences that I go through?”

The poem was published in the 2011 graduation issue of the Christian Action for Reconciliation and Evangelism  (CARE) Philippines Newsletter.

LLCS is the education arm of CARE Philippines, a nonprofit organization involved in holistic ministry serving urban and rural poor communities in the country.

Jonathan has found some clear answers to his questions. LLCS has taught him not only academic lessons but also practical guides in attaining “a better life beyond the slums.”

Jonathan and other LLCS students now serve as stewards of a section of Flor’s Garden, a five-hectare piece of  property in Antipolo City owned by  Flor Gozon-Tarriela. The section for  the  youth and young children is called Teaching Garden.

<STRONG>Fitting destination</STRONG>

In the tie-up between CARE Philippines and Tarriela, current Philippine National Bank chairman of the board, the student stewards are  involved in making the garden a fitting destination for children’s educational tours.

Here, Jonathan and the other students from LLCS enjoy a hands-on experience in growing vegetables, marketing the produce, making profits and raising funds for the sustenance and growth of the project.

The students’ garden management activities are meant to imbue them with a strong sense of responsibility, self-discipline, patience and perseverance, Tarriela said.

She added that by planting vegetables and nutritious wild plants, the youth can also have a deeper understanding of the serious need to save the environment and promote better health and nutrition as well.

Working with her in this project is PNB vice president Mercy Gamboa.  A self-taught artist, Gamboa—who has mounted a successful art exhibit at the SM Megamall Art Center—serves as volunteer stylist and project management consultant at Teaching Garden.

Gamboa’s design plan includes a pizza-shaped plot planted to bell pepper, tomato and basil and brightened up with multi-colored flowering plants. There are tree houses and an Indian teepee to inspire imaginative play and cultural awareness among the children.

There are also piglets and chickens in “no-smell” pens. In the drawing board are a kids’ pavilion and a section featuring favorite children’s tales like “Peter Rabbit,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” evoking a farm and garden ambience and a giant shoe for storytelling and literary purposes.

Tarriela said she was fortunate to have Gamboa as a partner in this venture. “She’s a disciplined banker and an artist who can balance accounting ledgers and creativity with equal skills,” she added.

<STRONG>Opportunity</STRONG>

Gamboa said she was excited at the opportunity to impart the basic principles of management and best practices  in the corporate world in the field of social entrepreneurship to the students who quickly absorbed the concepts.

By working as garden stewards, the students learn a lot about setting goals, recognition of opportunities, decision-making, raising funds or financing, marketing, time management and quality control that can serve them well in the future.

Gardening plays an “enormous impact on a child’s well-being, learning, and development,” according to a study commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society in England as reported in www.press.rhs.org.uk in 2010.

“Schools which integrate gardens into the curriculum are developing children who are much more responsive to the challenges of adult life,” said Dr. Simon Thornton Wood, RHS director of science and learning.

This is the reason Tarriela hopes to see gardening activities integrated into the school curriculum and her  Teaching Garden concept replicated in many parts of the country, especially in urban and rural poor communities.

Towards the end of Jonathan’s poem, he expressed a desire to keep his “beautiful dream of a happy and serene world.”

Part of that dream is to be a mathematics teacher for children of  poor families and to serve God “throughout his life.”

He is grateful that LLCS-CARE Philippines is helping him make this dream come true.