The head of the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. said he sees social enterprising as an economic strategy that will give options to the youth.

Auke Idzenga said Saturday during the 20th anniversary of AIDFI that its goal is to empower communities by providing them with right technologies and opportunities to help them start their own livelihoods.

The ram pump technology of the foundation won the BBC World Challenge in 2010 and became a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee in 2011 on top of other awards, but remained low profile, he said.

“We are trying to expand and mainstream our projects in the same manner and our people are very simple and from the grassroots,” he said.

The interest in the ram pump technology has spread all over the Philippines and other countries like Nepal, Columbia, and Afghanistan, he said. The Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and some groups in the United States of America have expressed interest in the ram pump, he added.

Local manufacturing can upscale the economic conditions of the people at the same time making use of the expertise of the Filipinos, Idzenga added.

He admitted that their ram pump technology has been commercialized and replicated by local manufacturers even in Negros Occidental, but they do not want to waste their time on it because it brings negative energy to their work.

“It is unethical but I believe we are sincere to the communities. We will survive and we have enough ideas,” he said.

AIDFI also developed the concept of decentralized growing and processing of lemongrass into essential oil, he said. The farmers themselves process the oil and they market the produce under fair trade circumstances, he said.

They have a factory in Cauayan town that has been operating since 2005 and has expanded to Murcia, though the farmers have just started with the distillation equipment, he also said.

Idzenga said they decided to form the foundation to concentrate on the technologies for the basic services and needs of the people and reach out to areas and communities that have been neglected by the government because

they want these communities to be lively and give options to the youth. *LTG

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