La Union ecology farm gets help from sun

SAN FERNANDO CITY—With a tribe of believers around the world funding its campaign, an ecofarm in La Union province will be drawing water from a deep well powered by the sun and the people’s belief that “droplets of water can fill a bucket.”

Pitak Project’s online campaign, “Quest for Water,” which ran for 45 days beginning March 2, sought to raise $13,121 (P577,324) from crowd-funding—a way of raising money contributions from people through the Internet—to build a solar-powered deep well pump.

The campaign was meant to draw support for Pitak’s model farm for permanent agriculture (or permaculture) in Tubao town in La Union. The group cultivates more than 1,000 square meters of rice land, which depends largely on rainwater and water from a creek for irrigation.

By April 15, Pitak (Ilocano for mud) raised 108 percent ($14,211 or P625,284) of the target amount with contributions flowing mostly from a circle of family and friends, a group of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Filipinos living abroad and anonymous donors.

Cyrene Reyes and Carol Galvez, Pitak founders, said the campaign was made successful by promotion and sharing of the crowd-funding link on social media and through e-mails to potential donors and friends who might know friends willing to donate.

“We also reached out to the worldwide permaculture community. We asked friends to share the link every now and then so we can reach a wider crowd,” Reyes said.

She said a group of migrant workers in Hong Kong, known as Filguys, ran its own fund-raising and donated the amount it generated.

Slow start

The campaign started slow on its first week, generating only $1,254 (P55,176) in pledges from 12 donors. “We did an initial assessment for the first week… . With that rate, we wouldn’t reach the goal in time,” Reyes said.

The next few weeks remained slow despite the group’s frequent follow-up of those who pledged. The group still had to raise more than 50 percent of the target amount two weeks before the deadline.

The campaign picked up during the last six days, generating contributions of $8,301 (P365,244) until the amount reached the $10,000 (P440,000) mark.

It was monitored online through the “We the Trees” crowd-funding platform.

“We couldn’t sleep, we had to take toilet trips every now and then. There was a time we went offline because we couldn’t take it. We tried doing other things, like giving the dogs a bath even though they weren’t scheduled for one,” Reyes said.

In one of her musings while in the middle of campaign, Galvez found herself talking to her farm dog, “Budoy.”

“So why do I have teary eyes, Budoy? Because I realize that this campaign is not just about the water and the well. This is about people and the future we want to build. We now know that our friends, families and whoever they can reach to spread the word will help us dig that well,” Galvez wrote on her blog.

“We continue to have support for the campaign and we’ve gained a lot of new friends and have found many like-minded people and groups around the world. So let’s sleep and rest our weary eyes, Budoy,” she said.

No turning back

Two days before the deadline, the campaign was at 97 percent of its goal. “That’s when we really got nervous, we just needed to raise $335 (P14,740). About 9 a.m. that day, we got a big surprise … a friend filled in the balance. We reached the goal two days before the deadline. We got so emotional, we cried for the crowd who believed in us,” Reyes said.

She said there was no turning back the moment the group launched the campaign, even at times when they were on an emotional roller coaster and doubts would come in.

“Giving up was not an option for us. We conditioned our minds in being positive since the beginning,” she said.

A post from Facebook supporter Latikan Golinsan described the campaign as a project with a multiple impact on women and children. She said women had long been the water fetchers as they had also borne their children.

“[The project] will bring water to homes. It will ease the burden of having to use hand pumps, which directly unburdens women and children. Because [the deep well pump] is solar-powered, the long term cost will be cheaper, unburdening poor households and freeing resources for other basic needs,” the post added.

Based on Pitak’s work plan, April was spent preparing the site for the solar-powered deep pump. Reyes said drilling began in May while the deep well setup would be completed before the end of June.

“After the campaign, we realized that there’s still hope for the planet. People still care and they’re hungry for change. People saw how important it is to make a shift to more sustainable practices, like tapping renewable energy,” she said.