A Brief History

The Community-Pesticide Action Kits (CPAK) project and network began with a need and an idea. The need was to get communities - farmers' and farm workers' - involved in the monitoring of the uses and abuses of pesticides. This would help generate data for education and advocacy; it would - equally important - help to educate and mobilize community groups. Historically, the need was first voiced by community groups in the Philippines and plantation pesticide sprayers in Malaysia who had participated in case study research within PAN AP's Women and Pesticides Project 1991-1993. The idea was to draw together a regional team to conceptualize and design training/education materials to catalyze communities.

In 1995 the ASEAN team came together to implement this project:

• PAN Asia Pacific - Penang, Malaysia, as project holder and coordinator;
• Gita Pertiwi - Solo, Java, who work with farmer training and environmental education;
• Munoz Community-Based Health Foundation - Nueva Ecija, Philippines, together with Dr. Romeo Quijano, a University of the Philippines based toxicologist and pesticides activist;
• Tenaganita - based in Kuala Lumpur, working for the empowerment of women;
• Participating farmer and/or plantation worker groups in the 3 countries.

The philosophy is to kill pesticides before they kill us. Pesticides are poisons, not "medicines". The project will develop a "core" of materials and modules, both at the regional level, and in the different countries. The "core" can be used and adapted by NGOs as they see fit. The kit is intended as a tool for action and advocacy: encouraging community education/empowerment is the underpinning priority; involving communities in actually gathering and using monitoring data is a complementary priority.

To facilitate introduction of the kits to different countries an English version will be produced, but most of the kits will be produced in local languages: Tagalog, Tamil, Bahasa Indonesia to begin with. The target audience are communities and plantation workers' groups, but some intermediaries will be needed to introduce the kits - this can be an NGO, local leaders of an established cooperative, etc.

The kits will integrate with and be complementary to certain recurring themes/messages: sustainable agriculture/consumption, women and development, local empowerment, health and the environment, who decides/benefits/controls? The content/packaging approach is modular, with each module will be able to stand alone.

• Knowing the killer (introduction to pesticides)
• Pesticides kill (pesticides and health)
• Pesticides destroy our world (pesticides and the environment)
• Pesticides and women
• Drop pesticides: build sustainable agriculture (sustainable alternatives)
• Selling poisons (the pesticides industry)
• Keeping watch on pesticides (pesticides regulation and control)
• How to say No! to pesticides (empowering communities)
• Pesticides and plantations
• Monitoring pesticides

The kits will start by connecting the issue being examined to the farmers' or farm workers' local reality, and then move 'out' to make connections in the broader context. Emphasis will be on visual materials with a minimum of text. The core kit will include a variety of materials. A centerpiece will be a booklet on each of the module topics.

Other materials include: cassettes, posters, comics, stickers, cards/photos/slides, sample community drama script, game(s). The kit will also include "idea sheets" on how communities can use or produce other media of their own such as videos, flipcharts, scriptwriting, etc. It will also include suggested activities for group building /dynamics towards grassroots mobilization and activism.