Larger image
Source: CIA Factbook
Philippine Partner Profiles
Farmers Development Centre (FARDEC)
The Farmers Development Centre (FARDEC) was created in 1989 in the Central Visayas Region of the Philippines in the midst of a growing clamour from farmers for land and human rights. It is a regional peasant support network that focuses on policy research, agrarian issues, and farmers' communications. FARDEC has been in partnership with PWRDF since 1990. Estrella Flores is the Executive Director of FARDEC.
PWRDF: Tell us about the workFARDEC is doing in yourcommunity.
Estrella: All of us in the staff, and management committee members, organize and mobilize communities. This means we really immerse ourselves with the farmers in their communities to deeply grasp their situation and respond to their needs. We provide organizational assistance and training to farmers so they can manage their own organizational and community affairs, especially in
launching local campaigns of lobbying, dialogues, and land occupation. We complement the training with research on agrarian policies and issues affecting the lives of the farmers. FARDEC also broadcasts two radio programs, in which farmers can air their untold stories and concerns.
PWRDF: How has The Primate's Fund supported your work?
Estrella: The Primate's Fund is not only our funding partner but also a partner in solidarity with our cause. PWRDF staff, and even members of the Board of Directors, take time to visit us and our farming communities. This in itself is a big thing for the farmers. As you know, farmers, because of living in abject poverty, often think they are not important in our society and nobody cares for them. So it is a great pleasure for them to welcome visitors. They come to realize that many people, even from far countries, are on their side.
PWRDF: How do you see your partnership developing with The
Primate's Fund?
Estrella: We are looking forward to a continued partnership and strengthened solidarity with PWRDF. The Philippines partners and PWRDF formed the Philippines Advisory Group (PAG) in 1990. Ever since then, the PAG has evolved as a model of equitable partnership relationship between PWRDF and its partners in the country, as opposed to a "donor-receiver model" of relationship between western funding agencies and the development organizations of the developing countries.
PWRDF: How can the Fund share the problems faced by your
country more widely?
Estrella: Your continued support to our efforts and struggles, and your support to other people's struggles in other countries, is in itself helping to share. In particular, the PWRDF South-South exchange strategy is a good way to share information, expertise and experience at the international level and for us to learn from each other. PWRDF's support for facilitating exchanges amongst and between partners is instrumental in creating global solidarity in support of the communities that are living under the yoke of oppression and deprivation.
