Dolefil and its awesome Chairs-for-Trees Program

Bariles and the rest of the Soccsksargen Bloggers had the good luck to check out a Corporate Social Responsibility project of  top multinational food producer and Soccsksargen’s #1 employer, Dolefil, up close and personal one weekend.

This is their Chairs-for-Trees Program which was started in 2003.

At that time, because of higher school enrollment and increased material fees, about 20-50 percent of students were without classroom desks and chairs.

To help solve this glaring problem, Dolefil which just recently launched its 5-year Greening Program (click here), joined the Chairs-for-Trees (CFT) Program and partnered with Mahintana Foundation and Mt. Matutum Federation of Marginal Farmers Association.  They did so by donating their used wooden pallets to the program and recycling them into the much-needed desks-chairs.

So, for over eight years now, Dolefil and the program have worked to increase the numbers of desk-and-chair sets, as well as provide both active and responsive assistance to Southern Mindanao communities in the Soccsksargen region.

Initially, instead of disposing them, these pallets are sent over by Dolefil to the nearby Unified Engineering and Manpower Services Multi-Purpose Cooperative (UEMSMC) compound at the Cannery Road in Polomolok, South Cotabato where they are disassembled.  Then a group of carpenters gather and clean the usable planks and start converting them into chairs.

Under the watchful eye of a quality control staff, the skillful hands of UEMSMC’s carpenters eventually produce sturdy and good quality kiddie chairs.

These finished chairs are then delivered to another site within the Cannery area where they are spray painted in Dolefil’s corporate colors.

Each chair is estimated to cost P263.75, according to Gwynee Ebol, Dolefil’s Communication Superintendent.  For every chair that is donated to a recipient school, the school plants 26 trees or one tree for every P10.00 worth of assistance received.

Another requirement is that these planted trees must have an 80% survival rate or else their school is taken out of the program and are no longer qualified to receive more chairs in the future.

Dolefil supplies the seedlings and tree saplings for the schools which they procure from another local cooperative  called the Mt. Matutum Federation of Marginal Farmers Association. Everyday, their women members are responsible for propagating the seedlings so they are ready for use in plant nurseries and greenhouses throughout the community.

At least 700,000 seedlings of various forest and fruit trees have been planted and grown by beneficiaries in the South Central Mindanao area under the Chairs-for-Trees program. The thousands of donations and seedlings propagated for the reforestation component of the project have likewise been a steady source of livelihood for the cooperatives’ members, thus making their groups evolve into viable business partners for their respective communities.

In general, Dolefil, through all these, enabled Chairs-for-Trees to address important concerns, such as education, environment (recycling and reforestation), livelihood generation and organizational development which definitely is an awesome endeavor of the company’s laudable Corporate Social Responsibility Program.

Check out the rest of the accounts of the Soccsksargen Bloggers:

• Cidy Bascon’s Dolefil’s Chairs for Trees Project
• Arzeriel Garcera’s Dolefil Chairs for Trees Project
• Dimple Dulay’s Blogger Insider: Dolefil’s Chair for Trees Project
• Erwin Bantilan’s Dolefil – Chairs for Trees Program
• Nanardxz’s Dolefil gives back to the Community
• Aethan Yting’s Getting Inspiration from Dolefil’s Chairs for Trees Program
• June Raye Prudente’s Dolefil Chairs for Trees Program
• Yadu Karu’s Dolefil Chairs for Trees Project