Breaking Down the ABCDs, Part I

The E-CARE Foundation (standing for Episcopal Community Action for Relief and Renewal) is an economic development organization breaking the mold of traditional development models with the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) framework in mobilizing Filipino communities to harness their existing strengths to improve their economic livelihoods.

Episcopal Church Of the Philippines Development History
When the Episcopal Church established itself in the Northern Philippines in the early 1900s, it provided impoverished, indigenous communities with free food and education that instilled a sense of dependency and the idea that the Church is “a rich institution from which material benefits could be derived.” While education helped individuals enhance their skillset to improve their economic livelihood, community development remained minimal. Those educated moved to cities or abroad for higher compensation for their work, instead of reinvesting themselves in their communities; thus, the “brain drain.”

What resulted from the introduction of the Church into these once self-sustaining communities was a sense of dependency. The American Church model, along with its “costs of the structures and operates that sustained mission work or, further, the ‘cravings, desires and necessities of western civilization,’” was applied without much regard to the Philippine context. These communities couldn’t financially sustain such operations, so an annual grant subsidy from the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) began, which remained the main source of support for the Philippine Episcopal Church (ECP) for 100+ years.

Amidst the political and economic turmoil, rising unemployment and widespread hunger of the Philippines in the 1970s and 80s, the ECP remained financially well-off through this annual grant. However, realizing that it must act to address the country’s socio-economic challenges, the ECP began to build its capacity to financially self-support and created a Development Program that housed income-generating projects, such as poultry and rice farms, a hotel, a cinema and transport lines. Most projects failed “due to technical problems, lack of management skills, poor feasibility planning, and, most significantly, the lukewarm support for these ventures from general membership.”

For one, the Church’s image as a wealthy institution lead to its projects’ demise. While most people were living in poverty, they didn’t see the need to devote time and energy to support an already-rich institution. Secondly, the development projects were seen as ends in themselves, not as a means of social transformation in overcoming dependency mindset.

From these failures (and one success - the organization of cooperatives which acted as credit unions), it learned the following lessons for grassroots economic development:

1. Social projects need the full support of the people to succeed 
2. Full support is given only if the people have ownership of the project 
3. People’s sense of ownership over the project arises only if they are directly impacted by the project’s gains and losses 

In applying these lessons, the church shifted to community-based projects that catered to needs of the people, especially in areas with “massive economic marginalization.” The program grew to work with 200+ communities across the country on potable water and sanitation systems, agricultural support projects, irrigation systems, a cargo tram line, micro-hydro power projects and more.

Lessons Learned
Two strengths of the ECP’s development program is that it lives within the context it works and it incorporates lessons learned through experience into practice. While most development models’ only metric of success is financial which has “tended to weaken positive values and brought about self-centeredness” in this context, the ECP’s development program stresses that projects must “contribute towards the formation or strengthening of systems and relationships that embody the values of the Kingdom of God.” The program emphasizes building a loving and just community through the values of cooperation and enabling everyone to reach his or her full potential.

Another learning was that households in impoverished communities ranged in their amount of assets and that development projects tended to help those who already had some assets to access opportunities that micro-enterprise projects, water projects or coops provided. To address this, the development program pursued projects designed to help the poorest of the poor, those who could not otherwise avail of a development project’s benefits, while also supporting the entrepreneurial poor through credit and vital services.

Traditional Development Models
Many conventional development theories are needs-based, looking at what a community lacks and giving it to them. This may be large grants or providing them with water systems, schools, agricultural infrastructure, etc. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t value the community’s capacity to improve its own economic well being. Being the ever-recipient of handouts builds the mentality that one is incapable of helping oneself and must rely on a benefactor to provide for his needs.

On the other hand, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), developed in the early 1990s, focuses on a community’s existing strengths and resources, to leverage them to improve their livelihood. It’s also applied in the Diocese of Louisiana, which has created an asset map in the region. This model contrasts this traditional “needs-based” approach, which focuses on what a community lacks, and champions upon what a community already has to build upon that.

The Church Learns ABCD
ABCD isn’t just a model from a book that this development program haphazardly adopted; it’s been the M.O. of the Church since it boldly discovered firsthand that ABCD works.

While the Philippine Episcopal Church became independent from the Episcopal Church in the USA in 1990, 60% of its budget was still covered by the annual grant subsidy from the US. Wanting to truly achieve independence, the ECP created a plan to gradually reduce the subsidy until it reached $0 in 2007.

Initially, budget deficits grew, programs were frozen and salaries were delayed. In 2004, the annual grant subsidy still covered 14% of the budget. Parish priests felt they had exhausted all income-generating efforts, and most believed the ECP couldn’t reach the 2007 target. The ECP contemplated requesting a 3 year extension from the ECUSA. Instead, the Episcopal Church of the Philippines made a bold decision. It did the complete opposite and resolved to end grant support, not by 2007, in 3 years, but by the end of that same year.

Diocesan leaders and members were outraged, but leadership ‘bit the bullet.’ Many prepared for the worst (deficits, salary delays, etc), but none of these came to be. In fact, for the first time in 20 years, the ECP ended the fiscal year with a budget surplus of 3,000,000 pesos (about $55,000)!

“The Church learned that it is only when it stops looking towards others and instead starts to fully look into itself that it realizes what it has and what it can achieve with it…. It did not just read about, analyze and conclude that ABCD was an effective tool - it actually lived it out and proved it to be the correct approach to development.”

From this experience, the ECP officially adopted ABCD as the mode to pursue community development work.

Stay tuned till next week when we’ll explore how the development program now applies the ABCD framework when working with communities in the Philippines!

Quotes and stories here are taken from the E-CARE Foundation Manual of Operations.

A Philippine Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! The Philippines calendar is stacked with feast days; still, we Americans had to celebrate one of the few feast holidays we do have. For Thanksgiving this year, I traveled up the road 5 hours to Bontoc, Mountain Province, celebrate with 2 other Americans (Tristan, another missionary serving there, and Nancy, a wife of a Filipino priest) and 30+ Filipinos. 

Traditional Thanksgiving ingredients (including turkeys) were a challenge to find, but after much searching and culinary creativity, we found what we could and substituted local ingredients for the rest.

The menu included:

Turkey
Of course. After tracking down a man who raised turkeys in the province, Tristan slaughtered the first one himself. We had 2, which were considerably smaller than your average Butterball, but naturally fed, and they seemed to have had a good life. Tristan basted one with local honey and orange rind, and the other with bacon grease and rosemary. Mmmm… Delicious. We baked them in the industrial sized oven at the diocese compound canteen... with no temperature gauge! Thankfully, they turned out great. The Filipinos seemed to enjoy them; it was many people’s first time trying turkey.

Rice Stuffing
We had to incorporate rice… since eating is not considered a meal unless there’s rice here! Here’s the rice stuffing recipe I used:

2 cups cooked rice
2 tablespoons butter
1 small white onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Saute celery and onions with butter until soft. Add rice and salt and pepper. Stuff. 

It was my first time with this recipe, but it tasted great and was very moist.

Mango Sauce
Every time I walk in the market, one thing I’m most thankful for is all the new, delicious tropical fruits to which I have access. Cranberries are hard to come by, so the next best local substitute I could find was… Mangoes! They paired surprisingly well with turkey. Will definitely be making again, and stay tuned for mango cobbler come summertime. To make at home, use:

4 medium sized mangoes
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
¼ cup muscovado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Slice and chop mangoes into small pieces. Boil in water until soft. Add sugar and cook till dissolved. Mix in cinnamon. Add butter. Add cornstarch mixed with a little water and stir until you’ve reached your desired thickness.

Candied Ube
Ube, my new favorite food and flavor, is the purple relative of the sweet potato, and often used in ice cream, donuts, etc. When you cut it raw, the color is white with a gelatinous purple oozing out of it, but when you boil, it turns a rich, dark purple. For the topping, pecans are hard to come by, but cashews and coconut aren’t! I’m enjoying substituting coconut milk for fresh milk, too; in large part, because I’m fascinated to watch them make it in the market. They crack a mature coconut open with a machete, grind out the white coconut meat, then mix it with water to squeeze out the milk.

Filling:
1 kilo ube, boiled
2 eggs
⅓ cup coconut milk
½ cup sugar
2 ½ T melted butter

Topping:
½ cup cashews
½ cup shaved coconut
½ cup muscovado sugar
2 T melted butter

Mix the filling, mix the topping. Assemble and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350 F. 



Kamote Coconut Pie
When pecans and canned pumpkin were not to be found, I turned to kamote, the local sweet potato and freshly shaved coconut from the market. Here’s the recipe for the filling:

¾ kilo kamote (or sweet potatoes), chopped
2 T butter
2 T coconut oil
½ cup sugar
¼ cup muscovado sugar
¼ cup coconut shavings
1 ½ t cinnamon
½ cup coconut milk
5 eggs

Heat butter and oil in pan until melted. Add kamote and roast until softened. Add coconut, sugar, cinnamon, and coconut milk. Mix until smooth. Add eggs and mix 1 at a time. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.

After feasting, someone brought out a guitar and lead us all in singing John Denver and Bob Marley songs into the night. The Filipinos enthusiastically embraced Thanksgiving, not only being excited to share in an American holiday celebration, but also to spend time together over food and drink appreciating our fellowship together, inspiring me to be more thankful for life’s many blessings and renewing my spirit of gratitude to honor of the essence of the day.

The full spread, including 2 turkeys, rice stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied ube, mango sauce, canned cranberry sauce, penne pasta, cranberry-almond coleslaw, Japanese pumpkin pie, kamote coconut pie, and the standard Filipino condiments: soy sauce, vinegar, chili peppers, and tiny limes.

9 Things you may not have known about the Philippines

1.  The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands.

But only 2,000 are inhabited. Luzon is the biggest island, where Manila is located, and also where I am located. Specifically, I’m in the Caliking Barangay, Atok municipality, Benguet Province of Northern Luzon, amidst the Cordillera Mountains, which makes for awe-inspiring mountain views.

2.  Over 171 languages are spoken in the Philippines.

Most people I’ve met so far speak at least 4: Tagalog, English, Kankana-ey or Ibaloi, and Ilocano, the main language here in the North. I’m learning, but it’s challenging because I’ve only found few written resources on the language. The grammar is tricky; for example, the word “I” could be 4 different Ilocano words, depending on the context. Schools all teach English and Tagalog from the elementary level onwards, although a new government initiative is having classrooms taught in the local language, which is problematic in a classroom with students of different native languages, as is often the case here. 

3.  The Episcopal Church has been in the Philippines since 1898.

On September 4, 1898, the first Episcopal service was held for Americans and English-speakers when U.S. Forces occupied Manila. A service for Filipinos was held on Christmas of that year. In 1901, the Philippines was designated as a missionary area and received its first missionary and residing bishop, Charles Henry Brent who, interestingly enough, served as the Chaplain General for the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. 

In 1937, the Philippines transitioned from a missionary area to a diocese of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Fifty-three years later, in 1990, they became independent, forming the Episcopal Church of the Philippines. 

While more than 80% of the country is Roman Catholic, there are 125,000 Episcopalians, and here in the North, some cities are 95%+ episcopalian. According to our Bishop here, the reason is that although the Spanish occupied the Philippines for 377 years, there were 3 regions they were never able to conquer: Mindanao (the Southernmost island with a strong Islamic presence), Intramuros (the Chinese community just outside the walls of the administrative district in Manila), and the Cordilleras in the North. 

Bishop Brent, unlike other Protestant missionaries, did not seek to convert Roman Catholics to Anglicanism, “placing altar against altar,” so to speak. Instead, he worked to establish the church to serve English-speakers, Christians who did not have a church, and indigenous communities where the Catholic Church was not established. So when Episcopal missionaries arrived, they were better able to establish themselves without an existing Catholic presence. 

4.  The Philippines is the 13th most populous country in the world. 

More than 102 million people live here. Half the population lives on Luzon with me. And it feels like it. Well, in the cities anyways; the urbanization rate here is 1.25%. Manila is the most densely populated city in the world! It also has the most malls per capita. Very sprawling as well. Baguio, the nearest city to me, has seen rapid population growth and is now dealing with the problems of congestion and traffic

5.  Sugarcane, coconuts, and rice are the Philippines’ top 3 agricultural products.

Agriculture accounts for just over 10% of GDP here, and I am fortunate to live in the agricultural capital of the country. Benguet province, referred to as “the salad bowl of the Philippines,” supplies most of the vegetables to all other regions. Grocery shopping at the market is always an adventure; I’ve discovered so many new favorite fruits and vegetables! I’m also food tripping in the kitchen -- I’ve made sugarcane syrup from scratch and now incorporate freshly squeezed coconut milk into every dish and drink I can.

6.  The Philippines is currently under a state of emergency.

I was first made aware of this while driving up from Manila to my new home when our car slowly cruised through a Philippine National Police Checkpoint on the highway. Since then, I’ve cruised through many PNP checkpoints and Anti-Hijacking Road Blocks, with policeman armed with M16s peeping inside car windows. 

President Rodrigo Duterte declared the “state of emergency on account of lawless violence” on September 4, 2016, after the bombing by Islamic terrorists in Mindanao two days prior and also conveniently timed with his war on drugs. While police supposedly cannot search your car unless they see illicit substances in plain view, some suspect them of abusing their powers.

7.  The Filipino President endorses vigilante killings.

As part of his controversial campaign platform and now his administration, Rodrigo Duterte’s DU30 program endorses extrajudicial and vigilante killings of drug dealers and users. Police, “civilian police” (or policemen out of uniform taking extrajudicial actions), and “assets” (or regular civilians taking extrajudicial actions), have murdered over 4,000 people since. Of course, the concern is that one could kill someone he had a personal rife with under the pretense that the assassinated was a drug user. I’ve heard violence in the streets has increased significantly and people are refraining more from going out at night.

The President has also been recently accused of ordering murders of political, business, or personal enemies, during his term as Mayor of Davao. And, of course, he’s made plenty of headlines with his, um, spicy remarks towards towards the US ambassador, President Obama, the Pope…. Still, I’ve seen a surprising amount wristbands, arm sleeves, sleeping masks, car window tints, etc. with his logo of a fist emblazoned with “DU30.”

8.  The main mode of transport is jeepney.

If I want to go into the city, I stand on the highway and flag down a jeepney, a vehicle style that evolved from retrofitted military vans Americans left behind after WWII with 2 bench seats facing each other in the back. Jeepney drivers take great care to deck out their ride! Metal horns protrude from the front, a few hood ornaments may be mounted on, and the sides of all of them are painted with a mural depicting the Jeepney driver’s family, Marvel superheroes, an American Western landscape, and the like. The bumper and mudflap will usually have phrase thanking God. My jeepney ride to the city an hour away is only $0.75 USD.

9.  Country/Western culture is huge!

Maybe the mention of “American Western landscape” in the last fact caught your eye. That’s right: Filipinos in the North are about country/western music and culture! I’ve heard more classic country radio here than I have in the South!