ARK solves – Philippines
Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK) is a school-based, community-managed social entreprise that partners with farmers and fisherfolk to feed children, keep them in school, and empowers rural communities to invest in themselves.
Short description social enterprise
ARK co-invests alongside farmers and fisherfolk in the Philippines who want to secure their food, health, income, and a sustainable future.
Short description solution/tool
‘Feed Back’ is a community-wide vegetable exchange program, for and by families. The families are invited to farm in their backyards and contribute 3 of their favorite vegetables in exchange for their fair share of over 20 vegetables contributed by their neighbors. As a result of this 8-week program, families source food from their backyards and the farmers have more than one crop. All families harvest excess produce that they sell to each other and supply to nearby villages and towns. Because the community leads and operates the program on its own, it feels proud, happy, and united. After Feed Back, families continue to plant in their backyards. Many start their own ventures. Communities no longer need to import food from afar.
Feed Back engages the local agriculture offices of the municipality to provide basic training on vegetable growing. It provides material on how to do their own bokashi compost to ensure that the community use organic methods in farming. Feed Back allows families to plant whatever vegetables they want to grow with the guidance that they will be the ones primarily eating the harvest. On days when families will have the exchange, all vegetables brought will be collected, divided into the number of families present, and distributed equally and fairly to all families.
ARK Solves developed a PlayBook, which is support tool to run a Feed Back program in your community. It gives the communities playsheets. These playsheets are easy to understand and use a Do-It-Yourself toolkit that village based changemakers can use to launch Feed Back for their community.
Available tools which could be useful for partners to communities, or change agents based in communities:
- See how the Feedback village vegetable exchange works here: https://www.arksolves.org/mymark2023
- add link to Playbook
- add link to material on how to do their own bokashi compost
Where to find more
● https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/fellow/ayesha-vera-yu
Similar tools (different tools, different organization, different region & language)
● Swayamshikshanprayog – India. Their Women-led Climate Resilient Farming (WCRF) model (also called as one acre farming model) transforms marginalized women farmers in climate-risk areas into resilient leaders, agri-innovators, and decision makers:
- https://swayamshikshanprayog.org/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TmvS8Da7ag&list=PL4c_sUqnnlfFTWEGmrbH_9nX3a8jq29Ud&index=6
Who’s best to contact
- Ayesha Vera-Yu – CEO and Co-founder
- Adrian Bonifacio – Director of Impact & Operations
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