Christmas for the Lumads

A Solidarity Campaign Project of the Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP)

PASAKA

Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern
Mindanao

Someday at Christmas we’ll see a land with no hungry children, no empty hand...

SHARE the JOY and PEACE of Christmas

SUPPORT PROJECT HELP!

H- Health

During the SAGIP medical missions this year many lumads (especially coming from Ata Manobo and Matigsalug Tribe) were diagnosed and almost 95% were positive of various illnesses mainly tuberculosis, malaria (falsifarum & vivax), scabies, kwashiorkor (severe malnutrition) , parasitism, goiter, anemia, etc. Measles, vomiting and diarrhea had taken the lives of more than 20 lumad children in the tribal villages of Talaingod this year. Unabated logging had caused the loss of valuable herbs used in indigenous healing by the Baylan (doctor-priest) .

• DONATE medicines for these diseases. PROVIDE iodized salt, vitamins and clothings. JOIN medical missions and SHARE your medical skills if you are a health professional/ worker.

E- Environment

Traditionally, Lumads are hunters and gatherers. Big logging concessions, plantations and dams, however have now rendered most forestlands and rivers--- their hunting grounds--- denuded. Breeding habitats for the binaw (deer), the takubong (forest rats), and the baboy ihalas (wild boars) are constricting.

• DO YOUR SHARE in reforesting the highlands. DONATE seeds (of hardwood varieties, or fruit tress like durian, native rambutan, mango, jackfruit and seeds of vegetables or food crops).

L- Literacy

The battle against illiteracy is starting at the community-level. More and more lumad organizations under PASAKA are now putting up literacy programs run by native community based teachers. Despite the reported high literacy rate of the country, illiteracy pervades most in the tribal/ lumad hinterland communities. These existing literacy schools (only one graded & formal) teach lumad children the 3Rs in the context of their culture and struggle.

• SEND lumad children to literacy school. SPONSOR community literacy programs. SPARE your used/unused notebooks, pencils/ ballpens, pad papers, erasers, chalk, crayons, used clothings, etc. HELP us publish SAGIP’s literacy reading-writing- arithmetic manuals.

P- Production

Long before environmentalism became a fad, lumads already practiced environmentally- sound farming techniques. But the onslaught of logging, mining and other destructive projects have threatened their food security.

• HELP lumads increased food production. DONATE farm tools such as bolo, lagaraw, guna, bairan/limbas, etc. SHARE your skills on agriculture.

TARGET BENEFICIARIES OF THIS RELIEF DRIVE/ PROJECT:

1. Ata Manobo tribe in Talaingod, Davao del Norte (Org: Salupongan ta Tanu Igkanugon)
2. Matigsalug in Sitio Bermuda, Naboc, Monkayo, Compostela Valley (Org: NABOKASA)

TARGET DATES for the CHRISTMAS with the Lumads Program in the Area:

December 15, 2007 and December 22, 2007

SEND your DONATIONS to:

Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples

Office: Diakonia Center, IFI Compound, F. Torres St., Davao City

Contact telephone #s: 305-0824/ 09286059209 or mail us at yutangkabilin@ yahoo.com.

Look for May for inquiries.

In the first Christmas, Jesus manifested his total solidarity with the poor (He was born in an animal’s shelter and wrapped in swaddling clothes), the persecuted (He was the main target of the mass murder of “the innocents”), and the refugees of this world (He was a refugee early in life, Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod)

--- Dr. Robinson Montalba