“AAHON SA BAWAT PAG-AHON”

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed
him for a lifetime”

Najjira P. Hadji Rashid

Rodel G. Amistoso
Hannah Lyda B. Galag
 INTRODUCTION

Dumagats ancestral origin is traced from Negrito's which is one of the earliest inhabitants in the
Philippines. They are found in the hillsides and mountains of Quezon, Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna
provinces. The term "Dumagat" is thought to be derived from the word "lumakat" or "lumakad" which
signifies the migration of early Negritos in Philippines by walking in land and not by the sea.

Dumagats before are nomadic people, build their temporary home and get their food from natural
resources around them through hunting and gathering crops in the wild. After the sources are depleted,
they move into another place to gather again food in the wild. They don't know how to cultivate soil for
multi-cropping and no sustainable living. Destitution is their everyday look. Dumagats before are animists
and their belief is different from person to person. They have their own language used among
themselves. They did not have wedding ceremony but a simple conversation only between two parties
during a union.

Today, many of them wears the same as the lowlands’. Some of them are already literate after some
efforts of governments and missionaries, several mountaineering clubs and many volunteers for the past
years. They stay now in one place, made a life of their own and eventually built communities.

Amongst all the dumagats, those living in Sitio Quinao Barangay Puray Rodriguez Rizal – located at the
mountains of sierra madre, it is home to several communities of dumagats – isolated and in need yet are
the ones who can wholeheartedly embrace visitors, changes and new life.
 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

living at high-altitude, waking up to views of the mountains, climbing them and even skiing down them
could be, by far, the best elation anyone can experience. It leaves anyone awestruck all oever gain. The
view from above, stretching in all directions and growing hazy under the setting sun -stunning. Yet, not
discounting the fact that the Sierra Madre Mountains is the longest mountain range in the Philippines.
Running in the north-south direction from the provinces of Cagayan to the north and Quezon to the south,
the mountains form the eastern backbone of Luzon Island, the largest island of the archipelago. Bordered
by the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Pacific coast of Luzon along the Sierra Madre is less developed as
the lofty and continuous mountains forms a bold and an almost inaccessible shore - an everyday back
and forth hike could be a gruesome.

Imagine how painstaking it is to walk on a treacherous way on a rainy day or a sunny day, the road could
be splattered with thick and slippery mud while approaching disturbed rivers and frightening swelling
water. And in that part where the water was deep, the hanging bridge, though old and worn, still proved –
friendly but deadly.

Imagine all of this being traversed by foot under torn slippers or most of the time literally grounded as they
have no shoes or slippers at all - for 8 hours back and forth to transport goods weighing 100-125 kilos on
average and because a male dumagat wants to carry more so he can barter and earn more – he will try
to carry more than he can. Causing almost doubled travel time.

Dumagats of Puray Rizal transport mainly charcoals to the lowlands and barter it for food (fruits and
vegetables) and other basic commodities like sugar, rice, coffee. Saddening that most often than not, it is
scroupulous buyers of their goods or their own illiteracy will not return even half of the value of what they
carried and not even the risk they took just to sell goods. It is disappointing and disheartening.

That’s why, In this plan, we would like to pitch in a proverb known to anyone “Give a man a fish and you
feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Despite this, Nature still have a wonderful offer to our forest keepers – the land itself and undeniably
Earth’s ever loving creatures – people. People with the big heart to help.
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Government, missionaries, volunteers and several mountaineering clubs initiated many outreach
programs to show utmost willingness to help our dumagats. Project “malasakit”, “walang maiiwan”, “black
pencil”, “stop child labor”, “ilaw” “Mind Over Mountain” are just some heartfelt programs that certainly
made their day or two.

Media, Social networking sites in particular is a common portal to channel all needs and situation.
However, there’s no concrete plan of sustaining fair living as lowlands on high altitude. Thus, this
communication plan is set as stepping stone to help alleviate the burden of frequent traverse from
mountain to mountains – risking their lives and leave fright to other members of the family left in their
humble homes.
 OBJECTIVES

Internal:

- To make use of Sierra Madre Sitio Quinao’s rich land – susceptible for farming.
- To increase literacy about greater goods brought by growing own produce
- To generate awareness towards sowing seeds rather than waiting for future helps without making
use of land.
- To increase literacy about greater goods in fair knowledge local and basic fair trade (on simple
barter or fair pricing of goods)
- To secure sustainability of home grown produce and cognizance of fair pricing of goods
- To lessen the frequency of transporting goods back and forth from one mountain to another
- To empower them with the profitability of above knowledge

External:

- To show the actual being of Dumagats in Sitio Quinao

- The mindset of helping
- Resonate equity
Primary:

“Aahon sa bawat Pag-ahon”

“pag-ahon (ahon)” – the most frightening yet ironically powerful word amongst all dumagats. It refers to
their day to day risk of traversing by foot 8 hours back and forth carrying loads of goods. To serve meal to
their families back in the mountains.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. – a
pitch, promise of a much long term help to alleviate their day to day dilemma and successfully achieve
sustainability on growing own produce and literacy in local and basic fair trade.

External:

“resound equity. Help the dumagats”

 AUDIENCE

Primary

 DUMAGATS

SECONDARY (not limited to)

 Government
 Missionaries
 Volunteers
 several mountaineering clubs
 (anyone who are willing to help)
 Prospect market (co barter) in local wet and dry market in the lowlands near sierra mountains

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

For primary audience:

Since Sitio Quinao is considered as remote and isolated place - long distance from highly populated
settlements or lacks transportation links that are typical in more populated areas, Interpersonal strategy
will be used to disseminate the flow and reinforcement of actions to be taken to reach a civic goal.

For secondary audience:

The use of quad media especially the social media to persuade people to help the primary audience
attain the fullest potential out of the program.
 COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES

The A Team

Group of people (government or NGOs initiated, or simple volounterism) will hike and traverse from
lowlands to mountains of Sierra Madre to reach Dumagats of Sitio Quinao. Group should consist of the
following:

 1 Team organizer
- Serves as the master plan keeper. Keep everything on point and makes sure that
plan is being adhere to all the time

 20 Volunteers (split choirs)

- They are the man power of the program. They are mainly joining to roll up
sleeves in setting up, feeding, assistance in teaching.

 3 TESDA instructors in Farming

- A professional volunteer who will mainly educate people on aforementioned
goals

 2 TESDA instructor in basic local fair trading

- A professional volunteer who will mainly educate people on aforementioned
goals

 10 Mountaineers
 2 terrain keepers
- The eyes of the whole team who will traverse in the wilderness. (1 dumagat and
1 professional mountain climber who had an ocular prior to the day of hike)
 Head
- The front-liner after the 2 eyes
 Sweeper
- The one last in line. Who makes sure no one is left behind.
The Program (7-day Wise Hike)

This part is intended to include the volunteers. Succeeding days after this warp will retain the presence of
the rest of the team.

1st Day

 6:00 AM – 9:00 AM

(Since Sitio Quinao Dumagats’ Chief do early morning rituals prior to)

A fora will be formed headed by the chief. He will introduce the group and intent. The chief serves as the
spokesperson and head of the community. What he believes in has a massive impact on the whole
community – Hence this makes the plan equally successful as par from any outreach programs.

 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

The prospect land to be used as the home ground for growing own produce will be visited by the team
and dumagats who are assigned to take charges in the whole length of the program. There then this part
of the program will be lead by the instructors from TESDA. This day only covers the aim of the program,
checking soil, and prime instructions of crop produce.

2nd Day – 7th day

 5 AM – 4 PM (includes breaks)

This section will be covered by the TESDA trainers. The training is simultaneous with application and
Training.

This covers the following:

1. Crop Selection
2. Land Preparation
3. Seed Selection
4. Seed Sowing
5. Irrigation
6. Crop Growth
7. Fertilizing
8. Harvesting
Meanwhile in the community. The instructor for fair and local trade will take over a different group
assigned in future transactions in the lowlands. This consist of the usual transporters – ones who carry
goods by traversing. This covers:

There needs to be a 'double coincidence of wants'

For barter to occur between two parties, both parties need to have what the other wants.
There is no common measure of value
In a monetary economy, money plays the role of a measure of value of all goods, so their values
can be assessed against each other; this role may be absent in a barter economy.
Indivisibility of certain goods
If a person wants to buy a certain amount of another's goods, but only has for payment one
indivisible unit of another good which is worth more than what the person wants to obtain, a
barter transaction cannot occur.
Lack of standards for deferred payments
This is related to the absence of a common measure of value, although if the debt is denominated
in units of the good that will eventually be used in payment, it is not a problem.

 Direct barter doesn't require payment in money (when money is in short supply) hence will be
utilized when there is little information about the credit worthiness of trade partners or there is a
lack of trust.
 The poor cannot afford to store their small supply of wealth in money, especially in situations
where money devalues quickly (hyperinflation)

The last part hour of the 7 week program will be capped by socials and reinforcement of good cause of
the plan.
 TIMELINE AND FREQUENCY

ACTION TEXT SUPPORT/RESOURCES TIMELINE OR FREQUENCY

first cut will take 3 days with

their full supervision. And
follow ups can be done thru
more hikes with them in the 5
Take charge on checking how the project goes. From weeks with interval of 1
soil state to the seeds. Crop farming specialist from TESDA month

Will gain another team of every 2 weeks from the next

send reinforcement for checking and factors that may professionals from TESDA or Local month with interval of 2
affect the projected result organizations under farming weeks

volunteers - from universities under

agriculture and DENR and TESDA every month with pitch in stay
inhouse project manager / manning team and or Local government for 3 days every month