Negros Ngo, tyk Team Up for Calendar Distribution

The Tan Yan Kee Foundation, Inc., from April 17 to 22, 2008 was in  Negros Occidental for its Planting Calendar and Seed distribution Program as well as touching base with health units for its Project Asthma.  

The Tan Yan Kee Foundation partnered with the Negros Occidental Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc. (NORFI) in distributing 600 sets of Planting Calendars and Guidebooks together with 1,200 packs of vegetable seeds to poor farming families in Negros Occidental, under the Foundation’s Planting Calendar Distribution Program.

NORFI is a Bacolod-based non-government organization providing physical rehabilitation to indigent patients especially those afflicted by debilitating ailments such as stroke, heart disease, mental retardation, seizures and cerebral palsy. One of their projects is the Backyard Vegetables for Everyone Project -- an activity that also helps in patient recovery and at the same time encourages a healthy diet and provides families with an extra source of income.

In April, representatives of Tan Yan Kee and NORFI braved the scorching heat of the sun and distant hikes to reach the beneficiary-families, where Planting Calendars, Guidebooks and packs of assorted vegetable seeds (comprising of Sitao, Okra, Tomato, Eggplant and Pechay) were distributed to some 600 indigent families. All if not most of these families have backyard plots of land where they can plant the seedlings, thereby guaranteeing food source and possibly, extra income in the future.

Also on hand for the two-day event were Philippine National Bank-Amelia Branch Business Manager Marilou Infante, Fortune Tobacco-Bacolod Branch Manager Allan Hiponia, and FTC-Bacolod Assistant Branch Manager Mr. Oscar Kho. They were joined by NORFI Director Dr. Filipinas Ganchoon, Couples for Christ Council Member Mr. Ricky Lacson, Gawad Kalinga Coordinator Mr. Russel Pareñas and Provincial Agriculturist 2 Mr. Victor Llagos, who shared practical tips on effective vegetable planting methods.

Mr. Lacson extolled the Foundation’s undertaking as a big boost to ongoing efforts to reduce poverty levels in the Province, pointing  to the project as a tool to empower recipients towards self-sufficient especially during the lulls between the Sugarcane farming seasons.

The Planting Calendar Project is a project in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, which aims to promote vegetable production through the distribution of Planting Calendars, Gabay sa Pagtatanim guidebooks in a comic magazine form, and vegetable seed packs.