AIDFI works hard for votes in last week of BBC World Challenge

(Pic: AIDFI gathers votes at a local college)

The BBC World Challenge is simple: be an innovative project that makes a real difference at the grassroots somewhere across the globe. The AID Foundation (AIDFI) in the Philippines certainly fits the bill. Its use of a simple technology, ram pumps - where the power of a river’s flow pushes water uphill - is saving time and money for 50,000 villagers.

An Ashden winner in 2007, AIDFI was selected as a World Challenge finalist this summer. Over the past two months, volunteers and staff have worked hard to secure votes. AIDFI has also been visited by an ABS-CBN film crew who, trekking across the mountains of the Philippines, recorded the impact of ram pumps in remote communities (pic below).

AIDFI Director Auke Idzenga has been manning the miniature ram pump display in a shopping centre in Bacolod City on Negros island (pic above). The display has attracted the crowds. Auke says:

“Even when you have completely explained how the system works. They will still ask at the end: ‘no fuel, no electricity?' The funniest reactions come after you tell the visitors at the display that the main spare part is an ordinary door hinge. They just shake their head.”

Auke says many of the shoppers in the Mall come back to vote.

“People first pass by the display, accept the leaflet with all the info, then disappear in the mall for a few hours, and then many people come to our booth and vote. They understand and are very, very proud that such a programme and product was developed on their island.”

For AIDFI, getting more votes is not just about the World Challenge.

“The campaign itself is one big gain for AIDFI. It's triggering so much publicity and officials are getting to know us more. What is very important is that people not only vote but as well share the link on their own Facebook page and their networks.”

Voting for AIDFI’s ram pump project closes midnight on 12th November. You can vote for AIDFI here.

Click here to read the rest of this post.

AID Foundation joins Clinton Global Initative

AID Foundation International (AIDFI), who won an Ashden Award for their work with ram pumps to supply water to remote villages in the Philippines, have joined the Clinton Global Initiative:
Auke Idzenga, one of the founders of AIDFI was personally invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiatives-Asia held in Hong Kong from December 2-3, 2008.

President Clinton travelled to Hong Kong to join several hundred Asian leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds to further strengthen social and global responsibility in Asia, and move toward the benefits achieved through collaboration.

This meeting was similar in format to the Annual Meetings in New York. The meeting focused on three primary areas of discussion: education, energy & climate change, and public health. As an integral part of membership, each CGI Asia participant made a Commitment to Action—a new, specific, and measurable initiative that addresses a social, economic, or environmental problem of the member’s choosing.

The commitment made by AIDFI:

Supplying Water to the Uplands - Spreading the Technology
The Alternative Indigenous Development Inc. (AIDFI) commits to a two-year program that would establish self-sustaining ram pump manufacturing and installation capacity in Colombia, Indonesia and Madagascar, and scale-up its existing program of hydraulic ram pump installations in upland communities in the Philippines. The program seeks to address the problem of a lack of easy access to water in rural communities in these countries. Lack of water leads to poor hygiene and sanitation, and limits agricultural activities. In addition to providing access to water, the program will establish a self-sustaining manufacturing, installation and maintenance capacity in each of these countries.

This commitment program would follow the technology transfer approach that AIDFI implemented with good effect in Afghanistan. It will be rolled out sequentially across the specified countries to allow learning from each country to be incorporated in subsequent activities. In addition, to scale up its existing operations in the Philippines, AIDFI will provide training and guidance of installation teams from other provinces, hold conferences for installation teams to share their knowledge and experience between communities and monitor the work of the installation teams to maintain quality standards.

Click here to read the rest of this post.

News from AID Foundation

AID Foundation won an Ashden Award in 2007 for their work on ramp pumps to supply water to villages in the Philippines. Auke Idzenga, who accepted the award at the June 2007 ceremony in London updates us on their latest news:

Arrival of machines from Taiwan. As a result of the continued efforts of the Ashden Awards to help AID Foundation Incorporated (AIDFI) scale up its work on the hydraulic ram pump, a company with an office in London sponsored machines that were high on our wish list. The machines are a big lathe, a roller bender and a plasma cutter. These machines will help AIDFI save a lot of money because all metal jobs related to even the big ram pumps can now be done in-house. At the same time AIDFI can use these machines for some outside jobs to support its self-reliant way of operation. The machines will allow the quantity and quality of production to be increased, focusing on ram pumps and some hydro power machines. There is a huge increase in demand for the ram pumps.
Training of new installation teams. Since the Philippines consists of many islands, and the demand for ram pumps keep on increasing, there is a need for installation teams on all the big islands. AIDFI has, since last year, been working hard to set up two new installation teams: one in Mindanao and one in Cebu. The Mindanao team (a mix of Muslim and Christian youths) has been trained in the workshop of AIDFI and as a second step two technicians from AIDFI are training the team with actual ram pump projects right now in Mindanao. Also an engineer from Cebu is staying with AIDFI for a long period to be trained completely in all aspects of ram pump installation, operation and maintenance.

The Afghan ram pump story has moved on. In October 2007 three ram pump installations were set up in Northern Afghanistan, and the latest information is that are all used for their purpose of watering the newly established fruit and nut tree plantations on the slopes of the mountains along the rivers. These ram pumps have triggered a tremendous interest. After a lot of communications and planning, Mercy Corps (an American-British relief agency, active in Afghanistan) has sent three Afghans to the Philippines to be trained in designing, fabricating and installing ram pump systems. The training period is six weeks and will end in October 2008. Two of the team are shop owners, who are already involved in manufacturing and installation of hydro power systems. For them, the ram pump is an ideal extension of their hydro power activities. The third is an engineer of Mercy Corps and will be in charge of identifying sites and designing ram systems. The two shop owners will, after the completion of the training, be given a lifetime license to manufacture the AIDFI ram pump in Afghanistan.

There are also plans in the making for AIDFI to transfer the technology to Colombia.

Click here to read the rest of this post.