Accomplishments:

In the Philippines

• Developed a Children's Center and created a child sponsorship program;
• Built and staffed health clinics and schools in remote villages;
• Developed and operates a preschool to grade six program for indigent children;
• Initiated Montessori-based daycare programs in several remote villages;
• Provided academic education and leadership trainings for hundreds of youth;
• Developed technical skills trainings for out-of-school, in partnership with the Consuelo Youth Foundation of the Philippines and the local Department of Trade;
• Established demonstration farms, agro-forestry nurseries, irrigation and reforestation projects;
• Initiated back yard fish ponds and organic gardening projects;
• Established poultry, swine and water buffalo dispersal programs to generate income for poor families;
• Conducted more than one hundred leadership and empowerment training seminars and workshops for farmers, women and youth.
• Trained community leaders and supported local initiatives in community organization and project management;
• Initiated community-based health care projects;
• Organized income generating activities for women and out-of-school youth;
• Developed literacy programs;
• Assisted the long-oppressed people of Fuga Island to develop entrepreneurial skills and a village pharmacy.
• Facilitated peace settlements during tribal disputes

• Hundreds of youth who have participated in the program have returned to improve conditions in their own villages. Many others have assumed leadership positions in local government or with non-governmental organizations in the Philippines.
• One of our major accomplishments is that IAT-Philippines is now being managed and administered by a group or indigenous professionals, many of them educated through IAT's sponsorship program

More recently:

In partnership with End Poverty Now, a Canadian non-profit organization, IAT’s backyard gardening program has resulted in a number tribes people in several villages creating backyard gardens to supplement their normal diet of rice and sweet potatoes. This project has not only decreased sickness amongst children through improved diet, but has provided an economic advantage to families who are able to sell their excess produce.

Through grants from the Cottonwood Foundation of Minnesota, IAT assisted tribal farmers to increase their yields as well as their livelihood through organic fertilizer production. The Cottonwood Foundation has also funded IAT’s Summer literacy programs.

Cultural Documentation

Upon request by the aboriginal elders, who see their culture rapidly changing, IAT has created a 35 minute documentary entitled, "The Spirit of Torcao" - a story of how a village got its name.

For centuries the tribal people of the northern Philippines lived close to nature and in harmony with the Earth. They planted rice in paddies terraced out of the steep hillsides, grew their sweet potatoes, and defended their ancestral lands. They respected and supported each other and cherished their children. Life was centered upon sharing the bounty nature provided.

Today these indigenous people scramble to adjust to the problems of the 21st century - problems of population explosion, cultural and racial unrest, decaying cities, crumbling social institutions, plant and animal extinction, global warming and massive destruction of the Earth's environment.

The elders are concerned for the future of the planet and its human and non-human inhabitants. They describe how colonization has affected their lives. Early missionaries from more-developed countries shamed them into covering their bodies - they were told that to be natural was 'evil' and a 'sin'. The colonizers called them heathens and savages.

In previous times they wore little clothing and all bathed together, naked, in the rivers. Abuse of women and children as well as adultery did not occur amongst their people and divorce was unknown. The elders point out the irony that in the 'developed' countries, where everyone wears clothes and considers themselves 'civilized', there is so much sexual abuse and family breakdown. They mention other paradoxes: how people in the 'civilized' world have multiplied their possessions but have reduced their values, have learned to make a good living but not a good life, have more knowledge but less common-sense, more medicine but less wellness, many specialists but more problems, environmental experts yet a polluted planet.

These people ask that humankind put aside its frenzied obsession with material accumulation and that we listen, with our souls, to the cries of a planet pleading for all of us to take a gentler approach to living on its surface.

You may purchase a DVD of this unique presentation, with proceeds going toward support of IAT's Philippines' projects.

In Canada:

During the past 30 years, IAT has worked to increase Canadian awareness of global issues through talks, slide and video presentations to service clubs and schools. Many Canadian youth and adult volunteers have participated in IAT's overseas programs in both the Philippines and Costa Rica.

Several students from Canadian universities, as volunteers through co-op programs, have been involved in conducting research on alternative healing practices, genealogy studies, historical background, cultural practices as well as peace initiatives and conflict resolution in the northern Philippines amongst the Kalinga tribes people. Others have participated in cultural exchange and training in Costa Rica.

IAT was instrumental in helping the Tsartlip First Nation women to establish a Montessori-based day care facility on their reserve at Brentwood Bay, B.C. IAT volunteers have assisted in several conferences for Indigenous Elders and youth.

In Costa Rica:

Our current focus is upon the initial stages of developing an Eco-Village and Global Youth Training and Development Centre in Costa Rica.

• Property has been obtained in Socorro, Costa Rica.
• Survey and land use plan has been developed.
• Linkages established with local communities.
• Caretaker's cottage renovated for the use by volunteers.
• An agro-forest nursery has been established.
• Fruit and forest seedlings have been planted by Canadian youth volunteers and local high school students.
• A leadership training seminar for Costa Rican youth has been conducted by Canadian youth volunteers.
• Hundreds of additional fruit and forest seedlings established.
• Fruit trees pruned and fertilized.

• Ponds created.
• Gravity-fed potable and irrigation water system installed.
• Organic garden created.
• Access roads established on the property.
• Construction of a youth accommodation and training facility well underway.

IAT is seeking funding and volunteers to fully develop this unique initiative in Costa Rica. A similar centre will be considered for British Columbia, if substantial interest and support are shown.