Our Environment, Ourselves!

ENFiD Acting Together Against Global Warming!

That our environment needs a continued protection is irrefutable. We underline the recent global agreement for environmental protection called the 2015 Paris Agreement. ENFiD believes that we all have a responsibility in protecting our environment and is therefore committed to give attention to and implement activities which will promote the Paris Agreement.

ENFiD gives attention to the environment by promoting sustainable energy and takes the lead in encouraging its members to support the environmental projects as stated it the Two Year Action Plan 2016-2017.

The General Objective of ENFiD’s Environment Program is to contribute to the alleviation environmental degradation and to translate our concern on this issue into concrete actions.

 

Practical objectives:

  • Consciousness-raising sessions about environmental degradation;
  • Introduce/ recommend small-scale sustainable energy technology to ENFiD-country members to integrate in their on-going development project in the Philippines or as stand-alone project;
  • Cooperate with NGO’s and Local Government Units (LGU’s) in setting up waste bins for segregation of wastes as solution to waste disposal management and solution in the Philippines;
  • Profile ENFiD as a prime-mover in migrant-driven projects to combat global-warming.

ENFiD promotes paperless communication amongst its members and stakeholders.

 

Rationale:

Most of our ENFiD members are involved in supporting development projects in our Home Country like schools, day care, women projects, etc. Moreover, we as Overseas Filipinos are influential to the families, relatives and friends in the Philippines. ENFiD members can also influence their family and relations in the Philippines to be environmentally conscious.

In the Philippines, waste disposal and waste management has always been a perennial problem. Also fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil and coal are the predominant source of energy being used which are more harmful than renewable energy.

The rationale behind this project is to develop ENFiD members as environment advocates and to maximize the potential and influence of ENFiD members in the local communities in the Philippines so that the beneficiaries and other stakeholders of ENFiD’s development projects will also be honed as environment advocates.

 

‘Our Environment, Ourselves’: Environment Program motto

This motto denotes that our environment cannot be separated from ourselves. A symbiotic relationship with the environment should be developed by everyone.

Through the Environment/Sustainable Energy Program, ENFiD aims to raise the consciousness of its members, relations and the general public about the worsening environmental degradation and how we can contribute in putting a halt in global warming. Also through this program ENFiD acts as a prime mover in migrant-driven solutions to combat global warming by introducing concrete small-scale user-friendly methods that can be used at home and community levels. ENFiD will initiate partnerships with other NGO’s and or Local Government Units (LGU’s) in the implementation of the projects within this program.

 

The Environment Projects:

To concretize this Program, ENFiD is embarking in three projects: the Biogas Digester Project; Waste Segregation Project and Environmental Perception Project. These three projects complement each other and will lead to understanding the general ecological situation while inspiring ENFiD members, the beneficiaries and partners to translate their understanding of the ecological problems into local, practical, small daily actions.

While the Biogas Digester Project is the long-term project, the Waste Segregation Project is the immediate/short-term solution. The Environment Perception Project is both short-term and long-term solution because ENFiD believes that once the environment issue is clearly understood, its impact would be more appreciated and so people would be conscious of the effect of their everyday actions on the environment.

The Biogas Digester Project

The Biogas Digester Project:

ENFiD will promote the use of sustainable energy through the use of biological wastes as a source of energy (cooking fuel).

Biogas is a clean and renewable fuel (similar to LPG) that you can make yourself. You will be able to cook all of your normal meals with it.

Biogas is made in a biogas digester. We call it a digester because it is a large tank filled with bacteria that eats (or digests) organic waste and gives a flammable gas, called biogas.

http://www.simgas.com/advantages-of-biogas/how-does-biogas-work/item46

The biogas digester uses biological waste like (trimmings of) flowers, vegetables, plants, all kitchen and garden wastes which are put into a tank and the microbes process the wastes to produce gas which can be used for cooking. More advanced versions of the tank and supporting gadgets can even convert the gas to power lighting and charging small electronic gadgets. But this version can be adopted at the next level later on. For now, the focus is to produce gas for cooking. The solid wastes produced in the biogas digester is also rich fertilizer for plants.

 

The biogas digester project is envisioned to be the banner project of ENFiD.

The target end-users are the indigenous and the rural poor communities in the Philippines.

 

Schematic illustration of biogas digester:

 

This biogas digester project-

  • shows how sustainable energy is doable at home and community levels;
  • the gas produced lessens the costs for cooking. The working model produces 30-minute cooking gas for every 200 liter of bio waste.
  • we combine an Environment Perception seminars so when the people involved see it working, it is easier to conscientizise them about the environment and their roles in protecting it;
  • through this project we contribute in breaking the myth that we are dependent on fossil fuel.

The Waste Segregation Project

The Waste Segregation Project

While the perfection and mass production of biogas digester is in the process, ENFiD will donate containers for waste segregation at the local communities. This will be combined with seminars on Environment Perception.

 

Below is an example of waste segregation containers for communities.

The Environment Perception Project

Environment Perception Project

In this project seminars about the environment will be conducted within ENFiD in Europe and in the target communities in the Philippines to increase the understanding of the urgency to help in saving the environment. ENFiD believes that if ENFiD members and the beneficiaries and the people in the communities understand the interconnection of the small actions that we do at the local level with the overall situation of the environment, their motivation to be environmentally conscious will increase.

The above-mentioned three projects make up the environment program of ENFiD.

Implementation

Implementation:

Through the Environment Program, ENFiD acts as a prime mover in migrant-driven solutions to combat global warming by introducing biogas digester which is a small-scale technology that can be used at household level.

The ENFiD Environment Team commissioned an engineer in Ilo-ilo to make the working model of biogas digester. This working model was presented during the ENFiD General Assembly in Prague in September 2016. Currently, the working model is being refined into a marketing model.

The choice of the communities of the end-users will be decided upon by the ENFiD countries.

The  Environment Team (ET) of ENFiD is composed of Diana Mondragon Halmans (Board Member and Country Representative of the Netherlands), Dennis Mana-ay (Board Member and Country Representative of France), Ruby Anna Tupaz Bengtsson (ENFiD- Germany member), Tess Bandana-Ramakers (Chairperson, ENFiD – the Netherlands).

The ET monitors the progress of the ‘marketing model’ of the biogas digester. A certification of safety will be secured from the local government in the Philippines. The waste segregation containers and the biogas digesters will be made using locally available materials. Local workers will be commissioned to produce the waste bins and the biogas digesters. In this way, this also helps create local jobs. An ‘atelier’ will be set-up in Miagau, Ilo-ilo.

Contact Us

For more details, please contact:

Diana Halmans- Mondragon dianahalmans@gmail.com

Tess Badana-Ramakers phfwramakers1968@kpnmail.nl

Ruby Anna Bengtsson rubymagnus@icloud.com