Barangay Dulangan is an agricultural area. Most of the barangay land area is characterized by hilly terrain with gullies and small valleys. The Digos River traverses the barangay, and in the northern part, further Mt. Apo is located. A big portion of the agricultural land is planted with high-value commodities like cacao, coconut, abaca, mango, coffee, and other fruit trees, cash crops, or annual crops like corn and rice. It contributed enough agricultural products and livestock entrepreneurs in the City of Digos, the Province of Davao, and region XI.
Barangay Dulangan comes from the word “Dulang” which means wooden basin since the Molave tree leaves behind a huge mark of the basin-like hole the natives referred to as Dulang. Their native languages are Ilonggo and Cebuano.
The project dates back to 2018, when our Chief Executive Officer with his family met Ruth, who is based in Australia. Both Auke’s family and Ruth’s family were given special citations for their value-driven advocacies in the 8th Jollibee Family Values Awards. Jollibee is a multinational Filipino fast-food chain with thousands of stores in the Philippines and abroad.
Ruth, together with her family, runs an orphanage in Digos City, Davao. As mentioned by Ruth, one of the major problems for them was water; even though there was a river nearby, it was quite difficult to get the water that would be used for household use and opportunities for livelihood through agriculture. AIDFI then went to survey the area on September 27, 2018 and a technical study was made. Unfortunately, at the time, no funds were available to implement the project.
In June of 2021, we were given a chance to join the GlobalGiving Accelerator, a virtual training program and crowdfunding campaign where the goal was to raise $5,000.00 total from a minimum of 40 donors and receive a permanent spot on the platform. We decided to join the project from Digos as our entry with the end goal of being able to become a permanent member of the platform and, at the same time, fund the project in Digos.
It was then also decided to include the local hog raisers, who also were dependent on the water from the river for their livestock.
After completing the Accelerator program, we were happy to find out that we were selected for a permanent position on the platform, which meant we could continue to complete the funding for the project we had selected. It was a first for AIDFI, which also tried diversifying its funding sources. The campaign lasted more than three months to complete enough funding for the initial phase of Social Preparation and Pre-fabrication works. We also received commitments for the funding of the project and small donations made through AIDFI that would finally complete the necessary funds required to start.
We were very happy to receive such positive responses from our long-time and new supporters of the AIDFI ram pump program, and donations poured in quickly. We were quite overwhelmed as well by the willingness of other water associations who have been provided with a water system to help out and donate to this project. This brings a deeper meaning to the project.
On June 14, 2022 the project was finally started with a target implementation of 30 days and a target output of at least 13,000 liters to be supplied daily from the ram pump, which shall benefit 33 families or 200 people from the orphanage and village.
Overall, the project was smooth, with high cooperation from the local government and barangay. The people from the village were also very helpful throughout the project. The project was conveyed to the project beneficiaries on August 23, 2022.