• December 2021

    Our System: Plant mangroves, collect trash from the sea and recycle it to school chairs.

Typhoon Odette disrupted all schedules in Mindanao. Our projects were only affected by the foothills of the typhoon, which cut a swathe of devastation with wind speeds of up to 260 kilometers per hour, and even up to 314 kilometers per hour in gusts.

The first 50 chairs for the Nasa School in San Isidro were therefore only delivered on 17 December. This school for the children of the Indigenous People is on its own because the parents do not (cannot) pay for the school fees. The school building with the four classrooms was built by the state and the teachers‘ salaries are also paid, but that is it. 126 children are about to start school, but we have only supplied 50 seats. What is the consequence? In short: We will deliver the remaining 76 in January 2022.

From our point of view, this project is well-rounded in this area: we plant the urgently needed mangroves, at the same time collect the rubbish from the sea and have the school furniture built from it with a 10-year guarantee. Sitting on these chairs, the children will learn how important it is to treat nature with care to shape their own future. But also, that it is one of the most important tasks to avoid the use of plastic in everyday life. A big thank you to Waterworld for including our chairs in the sustainability section: To see the entry please click here: www.waterworld.at

Morning view Pujada Bay.

Pujada Island.

It will also be quieter for us, because after the payment of the 13th Monday salary, which is compulsory in the Philippines, the staff will take a little time off and we will pick up our desks, because the Davao City Office has to be ready for handover on 27 December 2021, as we reported earlier. From January 3, 2020, we will be based on Samal Island. Our mangrove plantings are completed for 2021. We have planted around 435,000 for the Malizia project and 9,500 for click-a-tree. Our plantings are being supervised by Dr Lea Jimenez and her students, who are preparing the second evaluation of the reforestations early next year. From January, we will go into the next round, because we want to quickly break the 500,000 mark for Malizia.

Because our collaboration with the State University is not only a benefit for nature, but is also done with mutual respect and in harmony, we took a boat trip to our „workplace“, Pujada Bay, to Pajada Island on 8 December. Besides having fun, the next steps were on the agenda, but also our dreams of a Malizia showroom and a floating laboratory for the students. Our motto also applies to dreams: We are working on it. Things are also a little quieter in the timber department. We are currently negotiating with the environmental authority to obtain a new area for afforestation with endemic trees. Here we will follow a tried and tested pattern to convert fallow land back into forest. We only look after the seedlings for three years. After that, they have to stand on their own roots. After a start, a forest can develop on its own, because no human being knows how to shape a forest better than nature.

In Monkayo, the first mahogany trees are felled. It‘s sad, but if you love wood as a material, you have to accept that trees will be felled for it. We have wooden tables, window frames, but also chopping boards and stirring spoons made of wood. Wood is a wonderful building material with the advantage that it always grows back, and we will never run out of it if we always plant it in time. At this point, I would once again like to recommend our savings program. It starts at 10 Euro a month.

I don‘t want to take any more of your time than necessary. Please also note our four bestsellers. Although these will no longer be on the gift table due to time constraints, occasions for these gifts are not necessary. They simply always fit. Until next year

Your Mama Earth Team

School chair delivery.

The wonderful color of mahogany

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