The indigenous Aeta rebuild on Pinatubo's slopes with pottery made from the ash of the 1991 eruption

Pottery and other giftware made from the ash of the Mount Pinatubo volcano that destroyed the communities of the indigenous Aeta people is funding education, health care, and livelihoods for Aeta living in resettlement camps or building new settlements on the upland slopes, with the help of an award-winning non-governmental organization based in nearby Manila. Unusually, all members of this NGO work for free.

The devastating 1991 eruptions destroyed livestock, fish, and the forests and streams from which the Aeta made their livelihood. Unable to rebuild because destructive rivers of lahar—ash and other volcanic residue mixed with mud—ran down the mountainsides with every rainfall, many were forced to live in crowded resettlement camps. Many are now creating new settlements as the volcanic slopes become green once again.

The Entrepreneur Volunteer Assistance (EVA) Charity Foundation, founded by Jennifer Wallum in 1991, is helping the Aeta rebuild their lives and communities. Its work is funded by the sale of Mount Pinatubo Ashglaze Stoneware, made by 19 full-time local potters from volcanic ash and local stone and clay with the help of master potter Lanelle Abueva Fernando. The funds raised support training and livelihood programs, scholarships, and loans.

One program trains Aeta women as potters to meet local demand for everyday pots in remote villages. The women use locally-available clay and indigenous kilns that burn coconut shells and rice husk rather than wood. EVA also works with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (Region 3) and the Social Action Center of Pampanga to fund a micro-finance scheme that supports Aeta and lowland women in small-scale village projects such as lahar block making, pottery, home gardens, coconut and fruit tree plantation, livestock raising, handicraft production and small retail stores.

Taking advantage of Pinatubo’s increasing popularity with hikers, Aeta are organizing ecotourism tours into the crater and hope to build a cultural center at the base of the crater. EVA found donors who provided tents, sleeping bags, rucksacks and water bottles for the project. A women’s waterfall project at Haduan also supports indigenous tourism.

More than 4,000 children attend 40 schools supported by EVA over the past decade, known as Traditional Origins Ethnic Education Schools (TOE2S). The schools are named for their funders and built by local people using hollow blocks made from lahar and cement (bamboo is also sometimes used), and upper walls woven by the women from coconut leaves or cogan grass. NCIP engineers provide advice, and villagers repair and keep the schools clean. Indigenous languages and skills including growing herbal plants and food are part of the curriculum. Teachers are paid in part through seasonal food crops.

EVA started an Adult Aeta Literacy/Numeracy (3A3R's) program in remote villages in June 1999, when the first of 38 Aeta graduates sponsored by its scholarship fund received college degrees. Graduates spend a year teaching other Aeta adults to read, write and do math, using local language materials. Since 1999, there have been more than 50 such teachers. Another 21 Aeta currently attend college. Every two years, teachers and village leaders attend a three-day residential training to enhance capabilities entitled "Towards Happy TOE2S".

Other projects supported by EVA include an Aeta Primary Healthcare Centre opened in Haduan village in Pampanga in 2002, and the Ing’wa Jabon Natural Center, a Dutch-financed soap-making facility and herbal garden, opened in Sitio Pawen in 2006.

EVA Charity Foundation has won many awards for its work over the years. In 2006, it was given a "Best Practice" award for "its outstanding contribution towards improving the living environment" by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

This story was prepared from information on the EVA website, and from an article entitled “Pottery with a Difference”, published in the Asian Development Bank Review in 2001. Email.

 

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