Tag: Sustainability

“All in a week’s work”

“All in a week’s work”

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 23 Nov 2017

All in a week’s work ….. 

Greg and his team have shown us how it can be done, all in just ONE WEEK! It is the pure passion in Greg that just comes naturally to him, to help everyone in his path and to help make a difference. 

This is how his week unfolded …. On Monday the team left London Heathrow and flew to Dubai and then connected onto Manila. In Manila they were joined by our Ambassador, Ms Angelia Ong and they all flew on to Iloilo.  After an overnight in Iloilo they then flew to Lemery and then drove to the GSF village. 

On arriving at the village, there was a buzz in the air – Mr Secker is here. The beneficiaries followed Greg around the village, not letting him out of their sight!  After a fantastic community lunch, cooked by the mothers of the village, the team were then entertained with dancing, games and a christmas tree decoration competition. Who was going to win 1st prize?

Whilst in the village, Greg was also being filmed for a pilot for a documentary which is about encouraging other successful entrepreneurs to integrate the gift of  giving into their “business as normal”. If Greg can house 500 people .. there are certainly a lot more entrepreneurs out there who can do the same.  

Meanwhile in the village, Dean and Angelia did some story telling. Dean had written a book for the children of the village and with Angelia’s help translating it into Filipino they soon had the children giggling away.

After spending a day and a half in the GSF village it was time for the team to visit the school that the Foundation have pledged to help for the next 10 years.  Capanihan School is 2km from the GSF village.  Over the next few months we will build toilet facilities, an ICT computer training centre, a playground, a full refurbishment of the entire school and full catering for the children.

It was time for the team to bid farewell to the community and set off back to Manila to join Bill and Tani Austin from the Starkey Hearing Foundation, where they helped fit hearing aids to children that were deaf. To assist in the giving of a gift of hearing was a very emotional day with many of the team in floods of tears as the child gave the thumbs up as he or she heard for the first time in their life.  

The team had two more important visits to make before flying home – one was the House of Refuge Orphanage where Greg had sponsored the build of the medical centre, named after his late Grandmother, The Maud Clinic. They firstly stocked up with presents and then went and caught up with all the children.  And secondly, to personally thank all the wonderful Learn to Trade employees who have raised a fantastic amount of money towards the construction of the village. 

After five days it was time for the flight home …. Manila – Dubai – London.

 “All in a week’s work!” – Greg Secker – you are a true inspiration to us all. heart

 

A lesson in waste management and recycling for our beneficiaries.

A lesson in waste management and recycling for our beneficiaries.

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 25 Oct 2017
Every Saturday, whilst the children are in class, the parents are learning different topics. This week they learnt about Waste Management and Waste Disposal/Recycling.  The speaker, Engr. Tom Laurea, is also one of our engineers on site.  He was able to hold a very in-depth and interactive discussion about the correct disposal of plastic bottles, plastic bags and other waste products and the reasons behind why it needs to be done. 
 
Engr Tom set a fun challenge for the families to encourage them to dispose of rubbish correctly. They were split into 5 groups and have to collect,  “Trash in a bottle”.  Each group member will have a used empty plastic bottle as a trash bin, and then all rubbish they pick up will be put inside the recyable plastic bottle. The most bottles (with rubbish inside) will receive a cash prize sponsored by Engr Tom himself.  The competition will start this week and the final collection for recycling will be this December, where the bottles will be collected and used as building materials.
 
01-AngKaladkarin-EcoBricksPhilippines (7)
 
First prize: P1,000
Second prize: P700
Third prize: P500
Consolation prize: P200
 
The groups were eager to get started – what a great incentive to make sure the village is spotless and plastic is recycled!
 
It is very important to encourage our beneficiaries to recycle and dispose of waste correctly, especially today where plastic seems to be an ever growing problem in polluting our beautiful planet. Alarmingly, these statistics are rising year by year: 
 
• Over 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year worldwide. Consider China, a country of 1.3 billion, which consumes 3 billion plastic bags daily, according to China Trade News.
* A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021.
• About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
• A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
• More than 3.5 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps are discarded yearly.
* Fewer than half of the bottles bought in 2016 were collected for recycling and just 7% of those collected were turned into new bottles. Instead most plastic bottles produced end up in landfill or in the ocean.
• Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.
• The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
• Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts.
• Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
• Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.
* Between 5m and 13m tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish.
 
 
 
 

 

The beneficiaries get together to decide the village rules….

The beneficiaries get together to decide the village rules….

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 11 Oct 2017

It is very important that when our beneficiaries move into the village that they they all understand the do’s and don’ts in the village. With this in mind, we decided that they should implement these rules, not us, so last Saturday our village beneficiaries got together and split themselves into 7 groups. Each group then discussed what they thought the rules and policies should be in the village. It was a very interactive discussion and everyone shared their ideas and suggestions. 

IMG_20171007_110650

In the afternoon the Philippine National Police of Lemery attended and spoke to the village about Security, Peace and Order, prohibition of drugs and children welfare. They advised them on their rules that they had come up with in their groups and these will now be implemented into the village life. 

IMG_20171007_141108

Every family was given a certificate of attendance and the National Police were given a certificate of recognition from the Greg Secker Foundation for coming in and advising the families. 

IMG_20171007_114259

The rules decided were:

  • PEACE AND ORDER (Curfew, No shouting, No Karaoke sessions late at night
  • CLEANLINESS & BEAUTIFICATION (Proper waste disposal, every household to have their own rubbish bin, maintain the gardens)
  • VOLUNTEERING and ACTIVITIES (Organise fun activities such as Greg Secker Olympics, Organise and celebrate Halloween, Christmas and Town Fiesta)
  • MAINTENANCE / FACILITY (To maintain their properties to a high standard)
  • ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE 
  • WATER SYSTEM (To conserve water)
  • NO SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES
  • NO ILLEGAL GAMBLING

First Offence: Warning

Second Offence: Fine

Third Offence: Community Service

The vegetable gardens are thriving.

The vegetable gardens are thriving.

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 29 Aug 2017

Over the last few months, the beneficiaries have been working so hard planting vegetables and fruit plants around the village. They want to be as sustainable as possible for when they move into their new houses in a couple of months time.  

IMG_20170826_081022

They have made full use of the Materials Recovery Facility (recycling area) that they built. The mothers used cans, containers and plastic bottles to plant some vegetables and hang amongst the bamboo. 

IMG_20170826_080907

 

IMG_20170826_080927

Alya (our social worker) has sent us some pictures of fantastic looking fruits and vegetables that the beneficiaries have sowed and cared for and are ready for harvesting!

IMG_20170826_081434

In the pictures we can see lady finger, egg plant, long beans, papaya, lemon grass and spring onions! 

IMG_20170826_081226

IMG_20170826_081414

When the students from Central Philippine University were at the village they helped the beneficiaries with harvesting some of it to take home to their families too.  The beneficiaries are so happy to share their produce as the students from CPU look after their children so well on Saturdays teaching them. 

IMG_20170826_081124

Well done to Alya and all the beneficiaries for working so hard in growing food for the village!

IMG_20170826_081530

 
 
Pickled Papaya …. a new business venture for our mothers in the village!

Pickled Papaya …. a new business venture for our mothers in the village!

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 25 Jul 2017

 

The mothers of the village are starting up a little business!  Pickled Papaya.  They spent the day watching and learning the best way to cook this and then with a capital of 1,000 Philippine pesos, which equates to approx £15 they cooked, packed and then sold their produce to teachers, visitors and even the nearby village!

IMG_8648

The results were fantastic with them making money on their first venture! Well done to you all. The next batch will be ready soon so watch this space…… Pickled Papaya from the Greg Secker Foundation Village could be on our supermarket shelves!!

IMG_8581

We’d love to ask you, our followers to send us your ideas for a brand/logo for our Pickled Papaya! Please message us on: info@gregseckerfoundation.com  Thank you.

IMG_8693

The Vegetable Gardens in the village are taking shape.

The Vegetable Gardens in the village are taking shape.

By DR June Sanico Leave a comment 8 Jun 2017

With 60 houses now complete, it really is not long now before our beneficiaries are ready to move in.  With this in mind, Alya, our social worker rallied the beneficiaries together and has set them some weekly gardening duties. She has told us that the atmosphere is fantastic and the beneficiaries are so excited about maintaining their gardens and the prospect of harvesting them too!

Photo 03-06-2017-2

Every Saturday and Sunday the beneficiaries come together to work on their gardens. The fathers (and even some children helped) started with cultivating the land, adding some compost made of hay and animal manure to make sure that the soil was rich and full of nutrients.

Photo 03-06-2017-3

A fantastic variety of vegetables and fruit bearing trees such as tomato, ladyfinger, squash, bitter gourd, red chill, eggplant, sweet potato, ginger, pineapple, sugarcane, papaya and banana trees have been planted. The garden is a fantastic project to help them reduce their food costs in the future. It is all about sustainability!

Photo 03-06-2017-5

Every week each group is assigned to cook a meal for the others. They were sharing their packed lunches to those that did not have any so decided that this was a better way of making sure that everyone gets to eat together. What a fantastic community spirit.

IMG_8229

And as one of our beneficiaries said, “Eat Healthy Meals for a Longer Life”.

 

 

 

Page 4 of 41234