STRAIGHT FROM THE BIG CITY

Ike ‘Ka Iking’ Seneres
Global action for national development assistance

MANILA -- After a series of consultations with my personal advisers, I have decided that it would be better to separate my developmental and charitable activities into two legal personalities. As it is now, I have already registered Inter-Charity Network as a non-stock, non-profit corporation. Based on my experience, it could not be avoided that our charitable projects would usually overlap with our developmental efforts, the two being closely intertwined.
For some reason, the charity label has a negative reaction within the developmental circles and perhaps understandably so, because development workers would have a natural preference for the promise of improving the lives of people as a whole, rather than just helping some people with their problems every now and then.

Given this background, I am now organizing Global Action for National Development Assistance (GANDA), envisioned to be an international organization of volunteers who would like to assist developing countries in planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting their national development programs. Of course, the Philippines will always be our test bed and point of origin.
Although GANDA will always be working for national development, its intention is to always work at the village level, being founded on the belief that nations could only truly develop if and when the needs of their citizens are directly addressed where they are, where they live, regardless of how far they are from the centers of national activities.

Although we are still in the organizational stage, we already have about a dozen volunteers who are all practitioners of their respective fields, and who are all in a position to assist in the task of helping local villages in planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting their development in the long run.

Our goal is to build independently productive and self-sustaining (IPASS) villages in all locations where we are welcomed. Bio-fuel is the key to the success of each and every GANDA village. Using any source of renewable bio-fuels, we are planning our development model in such a way that each village would have its own source of electricity powered mainly by diesel engines, but backed up by other local energy sources such as solar, hydro, geothermal and waterfalls or rivers.

With their own power on site, it would become economical for GANDA villages to own and maintain their own water filtration plants, multi-purpose drying machines, cold storage facilities and grains silos. These are the basic infrastructure needed to support their local means of productivity.

With their own driers, they will no longer have to worry about their grains, fruits, vegetables and root crops going to waste and they could already sell these commodities when they want to and at the right prices, without being pressured by market forces and unfair middlemen to unload right away.

With their own water plants, they would not only have safe drinking water for their own consumption, they would also have clean water for their surface crops on top of having readily available water for irrigation purposes. For that matter, they could have fish ponds regardless of how far they are from the sea or the river.

With their own cold storage, they could freeze their fish, fruits and vegetables to avoid spoilage, and to be able to wait for the right prices to sell, again without being pressured by market forces and middlemen. They could also go into secondary processed products such as juices and purees.

With their own grains silos, they will be able to store not only rice and corn, but also coffee, cacao, soybeans, peanuts and cassava chips, among others. Just the same, the silos will give them the option of selling these goods when they want to, at the right prices without any outside pressure.

The technologies that I mentioned do not require any rocket science. We need not send people to the moon; we only need to support the villagers with the means to become independently productive and self-sustaining. As it is now, we already have the volunteers who could make this things happen. You can join GANDA whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, as long as you are willing to help.

Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text me at +639293605140. Watch my TV show “KA IKING LIVE” every Friday from 930 to 1030 PM in Destiny Cable Channel 3. Tune in to “KAPIT-BAYAN” in DWIZ 882 KHZ 5 to 6 PM Mon to Fri. Join Global Action for National Development Assistance.