The Steps to Ubod-Apunan: A Sustainable Community

Jan Dacumos

From the main road in Taba-ao, Kapangan, Benguet, a stare at the mountain east of Amburayan River makes one think nobody lives or would want to live there. But as one climbs up the steep and steps of the rolling terrain of vegetable gardens and rice paddies, a beautiful village is found. This is the Ubod-Apunan community. Though separate as sitios (smaller village unit) of Barangay Taba-ao, Ubod and Apunan form a single village due to their proximity amidst the uninhabited vast expanse of forestlands.  

The community, where one’s nearest neighbor could be on the next hill, comprises of around 80 discrete households. Nevertheless, a visitor in Ubod-Apunan can sense friendship and closeness among the people—things that one unexpectedly finds in a farming community where families tend their own fields and produce for their own subsistence needs. 

According to a local, people indeed tilled their lands, raised livestock, hunted, and maintained their homes. The cultural practices of wedding and burial rituals, planting and harvesting seasons gathered the people together. Apart from these, the residents plainly worked for their own living.

But a decade ago, Shontoug Foundation went to Ubod-Apunan to organize the residents. It conducted participatory needs assessment and village sensitization meetings during the first three months to ensure that the community members, indigenous peoples of the Ibaloi tribe, accept and respond to interventions in their contexts. Anchored on the principle of ‘helping people help themselves,’ the foundation worked with the Ubod and Apunan households in developing a culturally sensitive community-managed program on maternal and infant health care.

An interest group of Ibalois was formed and, with their acquired knowledge and skills, started implementing the health care program. They later named themselves as the Ubod-Apunan Association for Healthy Living (UBAPAS), and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. UBAPAS then expanded the maternal and infant care program to a general community health program, complementing it much later with sustainable agriculture program. Their organic farming practices ensure that the community consumes pesticide-free food beneficial for their health.

To date, there have been no reported cases of maternal or infant deaths. The residents are generally healthy, according to Romana Ciriaco, an UBAPAS member who is proud that they can manage their organization and programs.

UBAPAS has also become a center for citizen empowerment and leadership development. Its practices have been replicated in at least three other villages and UBAPAS members have trained locals of other communities.

Linda, one of UBAPAS’s trained acupuncturists and women leaders quipped, “Before we were organized, we were a shy lot, afraid to talk to authorities. Now, we can confidently and actively engage them to work with us in addressing our issues.”

Indeed, leaders can be found even in a remote upland village. Leadership resides in people’s dreams of transforming their communities. Keeping silence can prevent dreams from becoming reality and leadership from unfolding. Collective action can break the culture of silence—the timidity to confront authorities–when they realize they have companions to articulate and pursue their dreams with.

Undoubtedly, UBAPAS gave opportunities to Ubod-Apunan residents to unite their dreams and initiatives into the organization’s vision and mission.  

With trained hilots (traditional masseurs), acupuncturists, birthing attendants, and organic farmers—community leaders in their own ways—Ubod-Apunan has gone a long way in building a self-reliant, sustainable community. Today, Ubod-Apunan, with its institutionalized healthcare program and organic farming system, is a model of an empowered village that sustains a healthy, life-giving environment for the villagers.   

This Ibaloi community, standing high and proud on a mountain top, is continuously working in small steps and building big plans. As it strives for the better, it inspires other communities to bring forth their potentials and to transform. Seeing Ubod-Apunan is worth the climb.

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Jan holds a degree in environmental science and currently works as Mercury Monitoring Researcher and Campaigner at BAN Toxics, an NGO working for environmental justice in the Philippines and the Asian region. He recently became involved in mountaineering and photography while occasionally doing writing and editing jobs part time.