Livelihood run by girls goals to ‘nurse’ Pasig River

FLOATING VETIVER Manarang and Juan on the BeOne kickoff on Feb. 27. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Aloha Ponayo’s work is rooted in soil—fairly actually.

In years previous, Ponayo, 49, made a residing doing laundry for others. Now, she trains communities throughout the nation in propagating vetiver grass.

“It helps me lots as a result of earlier than, I’d do laundry work and take residence P300, P500. Now, coaching others [to plant vetiver], I can earn P1,000 or generally even above that,” Ponayo tells the Inquirer in Filipino.

Vetiver has seen rising use within the prevention of soil erosion and absorption of pollution in our bodies of water. Ponayo is without doubt one of the trainers of Vetiver Farms Philippines, which payments itself because the “pioneer in industrial propagation of vetiver grass” within the nation and is run by entrepreneur Noah Manarang.

“It might probably stand up to every kind of poisonous components. The vital attribute is that it’s proof against most pests, and it has what we name phytoremediation properties. It cleans contaminated, polluted soil and water,” explains Manarang, who has been propagating vetiver because the ’90s.

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What makes this noninvasive grass particular is that it could actually develop anyplace—from steep slopes to river banks, from lahar to adobe and even in landfills. With roots that may attain 3 meters deep, it’s significantly useful in sustaining soil integrity. Utilizing vetiver towards soil erosion was popularized in Thailand by at least the late King Bhumibol.

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‘Surprise’ grass

Regionally, Manarang shares that the grass is more and more being utilized by authorities businesses just like the Division of Setting and Pure Assets and the Division of Public Works and Highways. Actual property corporations have been utilizing it for soil erosion management as it’s cheaper than standard applied sciences.

Vetiver will also be planted in pontoons or rafts product of bamboo, with these contraptions being stored afloat in rivers or ponds. It might probably take in pollution and poisonous chemical compounds, and even carry these in any other case lifeless our bodies of water again to life, says Manarang.

She narrates examples from her company purchasers, with one picture displaying brown vetiver grass. “We thought that the grass within the pontoon was dying … So once we harvested the grass—that is already lifeless water, there was already no natural matter—[we saw that] it as an alternative thrived. And you may see the colour of the roots, that’s the heavy metals that it absorbed. It’s a visible illustration of how vetiver cleans.”

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Below Manarang’s management, Vetiver Farms goes to communities to coach individuals, largely girls and senior residents, on the right way to propagate the grass. Certainly one of these initiatives was in Barangay 190, Pasay Metropolis, the place, in 2018, Manarang was capable of educate Ponayo.

They planted the grass in pontoons positioned on the a part of the Pasig River adjoining to their barangay. The grass, after two to 3 months, was harvested from the pontoons and the planting slips had been bought again to Vetiver Farms for large-scale initiatives, at a peso or two per plant.

Right down to the ‘grassroots’

As one vetiver plant multiplies to about seven to eight per harvest, this program not solely helps the enterprise with the necessity for vegetation in its numerous initiatives but in addition offers livelihood for communities.

“Our advocacy is to offer work to those that can’t simply get work. Who’re these? Girls, senior residents … beside the undertaking website, we prioritize them in cooperation with the barangay,” says Manarang.

That run in Barangay 190, which had been began in coordination with Mild Rail Manila Corp., was so profitable—when it comes to neighborhood engagement in addition to harvests and income—that it solely stopped when the pontoons had been destroyed by a hurricane. The pandemic additionally paused progress locally.

Nonetheless, a bunch of trainers like Ponayo, was born out of it. Ponayo is now tapped by Vetiver Farms to show its purchasers and companions the right way to propagate the grass.

“It could appear arduous at first, particularly [with] these pontoons. However, after all, as you get the cling of it, you’d notice that it’s straightforward, particularly if you happen to actually wish to do it,” Ponayo relates.

“Vetiver helped me and others who beforehand had difficulties to make ends meet. Right here I’m now, coaching [others] and incomes cash out of it, being trusted [to teach] even in faraway locations,” Ponayo provides.

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‘GRASSROOTS’ ALLIES Noah Manarang (left) and retired Col. Maria Victoria Juan —IAN RAPHAEL LOPEZ

BeOne initiative

One other time that Manarang’s enterprise was capable of deploy their vetiver pontoons was when she skilled nurses of the Philippine Military on vetiver propagation. She was launched to the then chief nurse, Col. Maria Victoria “Mimi” Juan, whose undertaking was to nurse the setting.

“We floated the vetiver within the lagoon behind the Military Common Hospital, which on the time was form of polluted, so that is the place we [first] collaborated,” Manarang says.

Juan, as chief nurse, didn’t solely pioneer the usage of vetiver within the military. She additionally instituted its first aeromedical evacuation program, which aimed to extend the survival charges of troopers wounded in fight. It was below her watch that the nation’s first-ever air ambulance for troopers was launched.

Aster Guardians awardee

Now retired, Juan entered the Aster Guardians International Nursing Award in 2024. Launched in 2022 by Aster DM Healthcare, it goals to have a good time the nursing occupation. Juan even calls it the “Nobel Peace Prize or Miss Universe of accolades for nurses,” with greater than 75,000 submitting their registrations.

Banking on her expertise in navy management and neighborhood service via environmental initiatives, Juan gained the celebrated award—with $250,000 besides.

Recent from her achievement, Juan wasted no time and tied up with Manarang, utilizing among the prize cash in a two-pronged initiative known as Barangay Empowerment on Nursing the Setting (BeOne).

It’s a mixture of Juan’s many advocacies, kicking off with the discharge of vetiver pontoons alongside the Pasig close to Barangay 190.

That is accompanied by a coaching session on attending to people in extremely crucial near-death conditions, similar to bleeding and cardiac arrest. These are the main causes of what Juan calls “preventable deaths,” in accordance with knowledge from the Philippine Statistics Authority. However theirs is completely different from the standard first-aid coaching.

“We must always educate [these techniques] merely, not in a fashion aimed toward nurses and docs or in a highfalutin approach. However for our fellowmen, it needs to be taught merely realizing that it’s going to have a huge impact,” explains Juan in regards to the BeOne initiative.

“In case you are conscious of the right way to [attend to these cases], you don’t want to succeed in us [medical professionals]; you may deal with even 25 % of those preventable deaths,” Juan provides.

URGENT CARE Vetiver plant trainers exhibit lifesaving emergency expertise. —IAN RAPHAEL LOPEZ

‘Good karma’

Commenting on this tie-up, Manarang notes how she and Juan return a good distance. “What’s good about this collaboration is that earlier than [in 2018], it was Vetiver Farms Philippines that donated the undertaking to the Philippine military. This time round, they’re paying it again. Ma’am Mimi is paying it again by sponsoring our undertaking. So, good karma.”

It could appear that vetiver grass and cardiac arrests are unusual bedfellows, however the BeOne convenors word how these are intertwined.

“[Our trainers], particularly in far-flung areas, may very well be removed from medical amenities. Our vetiver staff can now be skilled in emergency response [through BeOne] … This would be the largest assist to our communities, the added expertise particularly lifesaving expertise for emergencies,” notes Manarang.

#50 Days of Giving

Manarang says this BeOne undertaking is devoted to the #50 Days of Giving of her sorority, the College of the Philippines-born Pi Sigma Delta, which is celebrating its golden jubilee this 2025.

“I noticed the foundation trigger. In conditions the place somebody has a danger of trauma that’s preventable, the neighborhood may do one thing about it. Similar goes for cleansing up our bodies of water, or towards soil erosion. So why not give attention to this, in order that our tie-up may affect each the setting and well being,” Juan says.

“If we are able to deal with the setting [through vetiver grass] … we are able to reduce soil erosion and pure disasters [that can cause] preventable deaths, other than communicable ailments that we contract from unsafe environments and unsafe water.”

As for Ponayo, the Vetiver Farms coach, she can also be completely satisfied to be a part of the BeOne initiative. In a latest press convention introducing BeOne to the media, she and a fellow coach from Barangay 190 role-played what to do in instances of a near-death bleeding emergency.

“I believe this [collaboration] will assist us lots. These people who I’ve been with, we not solely earn cash [from vetiver], however we’re additionally capable of notice that—once we’re speaking about saving lives—each minute counts.”