Digos Towards A Greener Environment

The Diocese of Digos held the Parish Social Action Ministry (PSAM) Coordinators’ Meeting & Formation last August 3, 2018 at the Diocesan Formation Center in Digos City. It was well represented by 17 out of 29 parishes and stations. One of the objectives of the meeting was to bring together the new and old personalities of the different Parish Social Action Ministry.

The other objective of the said gathering was to reintroduce the second encyclical of Pope Francis called “Laudatu Si”. The encyclical talks about the care for our common home. In it, the Pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible developments, laments environmental degradation and global warming. The whole scenario was presented in a form of audio visual presentation called “Laudatu Si”.

After the presentation, the participants were asked to identify specific environmental issues they are confronting in their own community. The most common issues were the disposal of waste products from big and small companies in their neighborhood, the bad smoke that is emitted from the coal plants nearby and the lack of cooperation to segregate and dispose their own garbage from home, offices and public places.

In response to the issues, the Diocesan PSAM introduced the concepts & benefits of ecobricking, the crafts that we can create out of plastic garbage and help raise ecological consciousness to individuals, communities and companies to transition from plastic, that means less plactic go into the biosphere. Several hours have been spent in creating and crafting ecobricks out of plastic garbage provided for their workshop.

Another thing presented to the participants that is also related to the care of our environment is the use of Solar lamps. Rev. Anthony Dy introduced to the group the benefits of using solar lamps. He presented a whole kit that can generate electricity to power a 1 watt led lamp enough to light a room during emergencies and even use for daily consumption to minimize the rising cost of energy consumption. The whole kit, including a solar panel costs P300 that can save you a minimal amount of daily energy consumption. Mr. Dick Duhaylungsod, the PSAM coordinator of St. Joseph Parish in Sta. Cruz proudly informed the body that they have so far introduced the concept to the GKKs and about 7 are now using the said solar lamps to light the chapels overnight, therefore saving them a good amount from their monthly bills.

The day ended with good partnerships of the different parishes to assemble more solar powered lamps and introduce them to the community in general. (Blaze Q. Cantaros, Diocese of Digos)