CALL TO ALMS: Help Distressed Filipino Farmers

Hi. We are Ariel, Ace and Andie, and we call ourselves the “Fated Friends.” Ariel is an ethical growth leader from Greater Minneapolis. Ace and Andie are a couple living in the main island of Luzon in the Philippines.

In April 2020, during the height of the pandemic, we accidentally founded a movement to help distressed farmers. We do this through something we call “Rescue Buys" by going to provinces where there is an overproduction or mal-distribution of fruits and vegetables and by paying the farmers above-farm gate prices.

We bring the produce to the capital, Manila, and sell them at the lowest possible price. The farmers win and so do the consumers. Excess produce is donated to hungry communities and community pantries. No produce goes to waste. This accidental, organic non-profit effort is called Rural Rising Philippines (RuRi). Our website is https://ruralrisingph.com and our Facebook group is https://web.facebook.com/groups/RuRiPh/

We are creating this, our first-ever GoFundMe campaign to appeal to your heart for the farmers we are hoping to help, around 4,500 souls in number. Their worries and needs are myriad, starting with a struggle to afford the cost of fertilizers that have skyrocketed 300%, partly due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. If these farmers do manage to bring anything to harvest, they struggle not only to bring it to market on rutted farm roads but to find buyers, if at all, and rarely for the price that will allow them to recover their cost to grow. Never mind reaping a small profit from many months of work and worry. The specter of the produce ripening and becoming unsaleable always hangs over their heads. Often, they are forced into a situation where they agree to unfair prices and “let tomorrow take care of itself.”

We’ve attached some pictures and videos to show you the social injustice and massive food waste happening all over the Philippines. Carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, lemons, cabbages, radishes, etc. Oh, it is just so heartbreaking to see. In most countries, produce is never disrespected like this and farmers are treated as a vital part of society, and rightly so. In this country, the majority of farmers are marginalized, buried in crushing debt, and pretty much left on their own to survive; it is not right.

In late September 2022, Super Typhoon Karding (International name Noru) slashed through the country and brought additional tribulation on Philippine farmers. (https://bit.ly/3DJl2gz). Most of the farmers we are hoping to help through this GoFundMe campaign were in the direct path of the typhoon, in the provinces of Aurora, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya. Many have completely lost their crops and had their homes severely damaged or destroyed. If it is not already, these pictures will further break your heart. We are helping them rebuild their homes and to restart their farms, but it has been difficult work for three people. Between us Fated Friends, we do not have enough funds to spread help and hope among so many. However, we are not despondent. Instead, we are hopeful that we shall find friends for our farmers. We pray for this GoFundMe to achieve a modicum of success so we can help put a roof back over their heads and to buy seeds and fertilizer to allow them to plant the next crop. We solemnly promise to make this count.

Update: At this very moment, as we post this, another typhoon (Typhoon Paeng, International name Nalgae) is raging through the same area.

If you are reading this, you can help by donating the extra dollar and sharing this information widely with your friends, family and associates. At RuRi, we tell people that we are not selling vegetables. Instead, we are selling the opportunity to help. We hope you grab this opportunity to do so by participating in this appeal through GoFundMe appeal.

God bless you.

Every amount counts to help these farmers.

$1 = enables us to pay a farmer the correct price per kilo for their produce which allows him to pay off debt.

$10 or P600 = allows him to hire and feed a worker for a day to help him harvest, sort and haul

$100 or P6,000 = pays for fuel and/or truck rentals to transport the produce to market