SK members in Alegria town, southwestern Cebu with the Rainbow Wall. | contributed photo
Cebu City, Philippines—The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation in Alegria town, southwestern Cebu culminated the Pride Month with a different touch, highlighting sustainable-eco tourism through urban-type of gardening.
Keym Yong Leguiz, 22, the SK Chairman of Alegria, told CDN Digital that they chose to end the Pride Month with an activity that would last for years and would help the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members in their community.
So last June 30, 2019, which was the last day for Pride Month, more than a hundred LGBT members from Alegria joined the first move towards their goal towards sustainable-eco tourism by planting jackfruit seedlings in recycled plastic bottles.
“It primarily aims to uplift the name of the LGBT here in Alegria. That’s why the SK Federation, together with Alegria Tourism Office decided to conduct an activity with a cause, which is what we called RAINBOW WALL PROJECT,” she said.
“Each participant of the Pride Celebration was given with seeds specifically jackfruit seeds for them personally to plant in the recycled soda bottles attached to the wall. When the seeds are ready to be transferred, it will be used as during the Tree planting activities for the LGBT members and supporters” added Leguiz.
They chose to plant jackfruit seedlings since jackfruit can be used to make different products such as “nangka” jam.
“From planting of seeds to tree planting, then the fruits can be used as source for income generating product to help our community here in Alegria” she said.
Now that they have taken the first step, the next move is to wait before they can transplant the seedlings.
“It will take 2-4 months for us to transplant the seedlings then wait for 3-4 years for it to bear fruit. Aside from waiting, the monitoring of the growth of the plants will be our next challenge and what we will be focusing on,” said Leguiz. /bmjo