Cerdeña Elementary School principal Cathalie Lovina Cardoza with the fruit trees wrapped in sacks beside her. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
On a sloping land in the far-flung village of Cerdeña in Malabuyoc town, southwest Cebu, lies a well-organized fruit tree plantation.
Cathalie Lovina Cardoza, principal of Cerdeña Elementary School, undertook this initiative following a memorandum by the Department of Education in 2014 encouraging all public schools in Cebu to plant fruit-bearing trees.
Cardoza’s knowledge in planting trees was further enhanced after she joined the “Run 2 Plant Project” of the GREENIN Philippines Program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) in August 2014.
There were also guidelines given to them by the Rafi-GREENIN Philippines on how to establish a systematic process to sustain the project.
Cardoza also saw a great opportunity to tap the involvement of the whole community through a “Purok System” to look after the 3.6-hectare planting site, which is an hour’s walk from the school.
The parents of the students and all the residents in a specific purok were tasked to maintain the site and ensure the survival the fruit trees planted.
Cardoza also asked the parents to donate vegetables for the school’s feeding program. The vegetables will be added to the porridge that will be served to the pupils to alleviate malnutrition among the beneficiaries.
Cardoza started planting trees when she was first assigned in Cerdeña in 2012.
They sold the harvested crops from their organic vegetable garden and saved the earnings to fund different activities for the pupils.
As principal, she imparted to the children her passion on caring for the environment.
Although Cardoza had to travel 18 kilometers every day to Cerdeña, she still made a good impact on the lives of the villagers. She said she is confident enough that the teachers of
Cerdeña Elementary School are capable of continuing the advocacy she started even if she’ll be assigned to another school.
“They need to realize that planting is not only for farmers and not only to be done in the farm. You can also do this at home because planting is life,” she said.