Agta Charity Mission

Welcome to the Agta Charity Mission site. This site aims to provide information about the Dumagat communities living in the edge of Sierra Madre in General Nakar, Quezon Province in the Philippines.

Although there are a lot of charity missions gearing toward the indigenous tribes of the Philippines, the Agta and Dumagat of General Nakar touched our hearts in a lot of ways. Aside from their struggle to keep their values and tribe together against the rapid changes brought by the modern civilization, this particular tribe went through a lot of troubles opening their door to visitors. Most of these opportunists had taken advantage of their kindness and used the tribes needs to collect funds but never really passed the donations on so that the Agta could benefit from them. Sadly, though the government allotted portion of funds to preserve the culture of the indigenous groups, they’ve become victims of inappropriate handling of funds, and some, took advantage of their poverty to raise funds for themselves.

The Dumagat people, often called as Agta, can survive with just the basics.  As long as there are rich forests and nearby body of water for hunting fish and other marine life, they can thrive as a community. However, with little skills and resources of reproducing these food source, it came to the point wherein they had exhausted the forest of its benefits. Aside from exhausting  these natural resources for the past 7 years, the area is also being threatened by illegal logging and mining. The presence of indigenous community somehow helps in delaying these destructive activities in the mountain of Sierra Madre, although it is undeniable that this destruction is already happening in most areas of the province. Apparently, once the Dumagats are gone, it means easy access to illegal loggers and miners to sabotage what is left of Sierra Madre forests in General Nakar.

MISSION OBJECTIVES

The main agenda of this mission is to keep the community intact and enable them to stay in General Nakar by giving them a sustainable source of food and livelihood. With sufficient food source to support their daily living, the community can stay together and not be forced to go down to the cities, leading to the abandonment of their culture, their heritage and the rich forest they grew up in. With the indigenous people abandoning the mountains of Sierra Madre, the looming destruction of our natural forests in the area is in grave danger of mining and logging.

IMMEDIATE RELIEF

Since the mission team is composed of different volunteers from different sectors, we encourage that every mission organized to visit the Agta people of General Nakar will bring immediate help to the tribe.  These things can be any of the following:

A. Food ( rice, canned goods and coffee)

B. Medicines ( both for children and adults, specifically for coughs and colds and other antibiotics and antiseptics that can cure infections such as open wounds  )

C. Common condiments such as sugar and salt

October is the start of the rough rainy season in the region of Quezon, the settlement will need enough supply of food, medicines for cough and colds; vitamins and protective gears. Aside from the itemized items above, we also encourage volunteers to bring the following relief:

A.  Rubber boots and raincoats for children and adults

B.  Blankets and old clothes

C. Kerosene lamps and headlights

These items are of significant help to the community since they are being used on a daily basis.

SUSTAINABLE HELP

Aside from the immediate help that volunteers can bring, we encourage visitors to bring items which will help the community be more self-sufficient. As much as possible, we encourage volunteers to bring items which can help them in terms of their livelihood — planting and fishing.  Here are some of the following items which can be of long term help for them :

A.  Seeds and seedlings for planting ( common crops and vegetable seeds are ideal )

B. Planting tools

C. Fishing tools ( especially fishing net )

To learn more on how you can be a part of our mission, contact us by filling out our Feedback form or send us an email at info@agtacharitymission.info

To know how you can help us raise funds for this mission, check out the Support Our Mission page or email us at support@agtacharitymission.info