Rhyan Casino, Liew Shao Yi and Vincent Eugenio

Workshop by Dire Husi:

Planning: Dire Husi Workshop Report
Report written by Liew, Shao Yi

Workshop held
Participatory Evaluation, Visioning and

4-8 January 2010

This is a report outlining an intimate workshop with the members

of a youth arts and social enterprise organization called Dire Husi,
which is based in Cagayan de Oro City. The purpose of the
workshop was for the youth to self-evaluate and reflect on their
personal growth and development, and the linkages to the
organization. The youth members also went through a
vision/goals activity and a planning exercise to glean focus for the
organization that is rooted in the dreams and ideas of its individual
members.
 Dire Husi Workshop Report

The Journey, The Dream, The Plans:

Part icipatory evaluat ion, visioning and planning
Dire Husi Workshop Report

Introduction
In December 2009 and January 2010, a small group of friends and I visited the youth arts organization, Dire
Husi, and stayed with them for about one month. During our stay, we became close to the youth members
of the organization. Together with the founder and members, we co-held a series of intimate evening
workshops from 4-8 January 2010. These were a series of creative evaluation and planning workshops for
the organization that eventually emerged as three parts: The Journey, The Dream and The Plan. This report
will cover the entire five-day process as it is difficult to segregate the evaluation from the planning. It is also
meaningful to link evaluation to planning as it helps in grasping the full importance of evaluation not just as
a means for reflection, but also to plan for the future. That we need to look back before we can look
forward.

The organization
Dire Husi is a dynamic youth organization that
grew out of the simple beginnings of a
friendship among individuals. The Cagayan de
Oro-based organization was established in
2004, but was not formalized till a few years
later.

The story goes that Rhyan Casino, the

founder, registered the organization under
sole proprietorship with the name “Dire Hose”
in 2004, with the initial intent of setting up a business. However, it was not till later in 2006 and 2007 that he
developed friendships with the first of the youth, who could be considered the other founding members of
the organization. Rhyan met David Yanez, the first founding youth and talented craftsman and musician, as
he was selling crafts in Divisoria Park to put himself through high school. He began inviting David for music
performances and festivals, as an avenue to practice his art and sell crafts. Not long after, he befriended
Rusty Quintana, also among the first founding youth, in Divisoria Park as well. Rusty grew up on the streets
since he was three years old, unintentionally abandoned by his brother as they were running away from
home. He had been in and out of orphanages, juvenile detention and drug rehabilitation centers before
reaching the age of 16.

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These friendships were serendipitous, but became deep and meaningful as they began selling crafts and
performing together in Divisoria Park and at festivals, with Rhyan often mentoring David, Rusty and other
youth who were attracted to the group. Together, the youth set up Dream Arts Cagayan, a small
performing arts group that focused on night street performances at Divisoria Park every weekend. Other
young people, some of indigenous roots, some with troubled pasts involving broken families, crime, drugs
or alcohol abuse, began joining their informal activities of bonding, performing, making crafts and selling
them.

Not long after, they decided to solidify their partnership. With combined energies of the youth and the
founder, the nature of the entity transformed into a youth-oriented one, and the name of the organization
was changed to Dire Husi, with Dream Arts Cagayan assimilated into it. The youth organization diversified.
They began to draw a variety of youth, those from more affluent backgrounds, university students,
travelers, and other young artists, who felt marginalized and unsupported in their artistic aspirations. Dire
Husi became a place where interconnections were made, where people mingled and friendships developed
regardless of background.

Today, Dire Husi has grown into an organization

Indigenous is hip is one of the organization’s
taglines for its art products and services
centered on a creative space, the Art House. Dire Husi
boasts a small membership of diverse young people
from Northern Mindanao. Regardless of their ethnicity,
gender and class, all seek a platform for creative
expression and acceptance. “Dire” is a Visayan word for
“here” and “Husi” is a Manobo word for “friend.” Based
in Cagayan de Oro City, the group runs an art collective
and social enterprise that creates and sells indigenous-
inspired terracotta accessories, musical instruments,
and soil paintings. Members also perform world music
that fuses indigenous chants and rhythms with
contemporary beats.

Dire Husi makes multiple claims – they are a youth organization, a creative social enterprise, an artisan
collective, a band of world musicians, a training hub, and a fair trade advocate. The organization envisions a
community of socially and environmentally responsible young people working collectively to develop the
full potential of their generation through the arts and entrepreneurship. The group has four goals:

• Establish a social enterprise that can provide them with alternative income while developing their
skills and potentials.

• Enhance their interpersonal, creative, and business capabilities through mentoring, sharing, and
collective learning.

• Inspire and help organize other community-based youth groups by involving them in artistic and
enterprising activities.

• Create channels for interconnection, dialogue and concerted action among young people from
diverse class, age, gender, and ethnicity.

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The organizers
On the surface, this was a joint effort between a group of Masters in Community Development (Ma. In CD)
students from CSWCD, UP Diliman, and the founders of the organization. The Ma. in CD students were
Vincent Eugenio, myself, and to a certain extent, Janice Gabuat, who had to leave Cagayan de Oro after the
first day of the workshop. The other organizing party was Rhyan Casino or Kuya Rhyan, the founder of Dire
Husi. Together, we decided not to include additional facilitators from the organization as all of us wanted
the members to focus on participating in the workshop and feed valuable insights and directions to the
activities.

Although Vince, Janice and I came to Cagayan de Oro as external parties, the organizing reality was more
complex. Even though some of us have been involved with the organization for some time, in the weeks
leading up to the workshop, the members had openly embraced us as being part of Dire Husi. We were
already recognized as being part of the membership when the workshops began, because of the close
friendships developed as we all lived, ate, slept and worked in the same house, the Dire Husi Art Haus.

Being both external and internal to the organization had a number of implications. The three of us – Vince,
Kuya Rhyan and I – could facilitate the workshops very informally. As we shared close relationships with
most, if not all of the members, everyone could communicate with each other openly and simply, and be
vulnerable with each other. There was a strong atmosphere of trust, friendship and closeness throughout
the days of the workshop. Many people openly aired they problems and concerns about their life and the
life of the organization. Everyone shared a strong focus and commitment to Dire Husi, although the
organizers’ personal involvement in the organization may have surfaced some objectivity issues. We did our
best to counteract problems in objectivity by having a post-mortem after each session, to not only reaffirm
and share successes and insights but also point out and correct flaws in the workshop design, as well as
personal attitudes and behaviour.

The Process
The process that eventually emerged from the months of involvement with the organization in relation to
the workshop did not follow a linear process. When I look back, it seems like the processed can be
envisioned in a fractal or nodal form, or in a circular form. This is because there were several entry phases,
and several design phases that did not directly lead to each other, but were nevertheless interlinked before
going into the workshop implementation. This is probably the case because the glimmerings for such a
workshop emerged a long time ago in mid-2009, and grew sporadically from there. The process is outlined
as clearly as possible in this section.

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Entry &
Entry & design design
Aug-Oct 2009 Aug-Oct
2009

Entry &
Entry & design design
Dec 2009- Jan 2010 Dec 2009-
Jan 2010

Implementation
Jan 2010
Implementation
Jan 2010
Entry & design
April 2009
Entry &
design
April 2009
The process in nodal form The process in circular form

In accordance to the illustrations above, there were therefore three separate entry and design phases
before the workshop proper materialized.

First Entry and Designing Phase

April 2009

In April, Kuya Rhyan and some members from Dire Husi travelled from Cagayan de Oro to Manila to take
part in a trade fair in Intramuros. Vincent Eugenio was with them for the whole fair period. During this time,
Kuya Rhyan initiated discussions with Vince for a youth development workshop for the members of the
organization. When I joined them for a day at the fair, they shared the ideas for the workshop. According to
Rhyan, the youth artisans were living in the Art Haus, but were not yet united in their commitment to the
organization and to each other. They were still caught up in their personal problems and not yet able to turn
to each other for help or comfort. He imagined a workshop to transform the mentality of the youth from an
“I” mentality, to a “We” mentality. He wanted us to help develop such a workshop. We discussed together
the possibility for the workshop, and what it would do. We did not however commit to a specific time for
the intervention yet as it would involve travel to Cagayan de Oro, and all our schedules were still uncertain.

Second Entry and Designing Phase

August-October 2009

Between August to October 2009, another set of discussions emerged among Manila-based supporters of
the organization and Dire Husi. This time, we enlisted assistance from friends, also Ma. in CD students, to
solidify support for Dire Husi. We also begun some discussions with other art and social enterprise
organizations in Manila for partnership opportunities, but realized we were unable to move ahead with
these as we did not have a concrete idea of Dire Husi’s plans.

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At the same time, I was taking up CD233 as part of the Masters course and was committed to a participatory
monitoring or evaluation process. However, I was very cautious about initiating a process that the
organization was not prepared for.

Instead, a group of Ma. in CD students initiated a series of discussions with Rhyan from Dire Husi every
Friday night to draw out ideas on the direction of the organization. This was challenging because the
organization never had a set of plans for itself, formal or informal. Dire Husi instead tended to survive on
spontaneous processes and developments, as well as grabbing opportunities that arise at the time. We
made an attempt to draw up a rough plan for Dire Husi based on our interpretation of Dire Husi inputs
derived from online discussions. However, somehow the plans always felt one sided.

It was around this time that we began to consider once more the possibility of going to Cagayan de Oro,
and picked up the idea of a youth development workshop again. This time, however, we had intent to
combine elements of youth development and relationship building with organizational evaluation, visioning
and planning activities. After discussing with Rhyan online, the Ma. In CD began sketching a workshop
design that would capture the desired inputs from the youth members about their personal growth and
histories as well as their vision for Dire Husi. This workshop design was captured in my CD233 presentation
in October 2009:

However, we left the workshop design as that – a design. Eventually, we did not use it, although the final
design carried elements of this initial one. This was because the process of designing the evaluation and
visioning workshop was not done in a very participatory way, as we were doing the design out of Manila
mostly. We decided to hold off proper planning of the workshop until we actually arrived in Cagayan de
Oro, spent some time with Dire Husi and its youth members and developed more concrete ideas of the
issues they wanted to address and methods they would be most receptive to.

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Third Entry and Designing Phase

On 23 December 2009, a much smaller group of Ma. in CD students arrived in Cagayan de Oro to spend
time with and get to know Dire Husi and its members. We also anticipated that a youth workshop would
materialize during our stay of about a month. Some students could only commit to stay for a few days,
some a few weeks, other a month. Rhyan and the youth members welcomed us warmly, as they have been
encouraging us to visit them for a long time.

Before making the trip, we had already discussed the makings of the youth workshop with Rhyan and some
of the other members. Rhyan in particular was eager to find out more details about the workshop. It took us
some effort to explain that we did not have the details because we wanted to plan the workshop together
with him and the Dire Husi artisans.

The first two weeks of the trip was spent familiarizing ourselves with the organization, and building
relationships with the members. We lived in the Dire Husi Art Haus with Rhyan, his wife Shamae Casino who
is also a mentor in the organization, their daughter and three youth members. The other members lived
outside the Art Haus with family or in rented rooms, but often stayed over at the house if they had art
projects, production work or practices for performances. Youth members also spend a lot of time at the Art
Haus interfacing with each other, hang out and jam with like-minded people. Meal times are open to
everyone who is present at the Art Haus, regardless if they are members, visitors or street children that
have befriended the artisans and drop by on occasion. This is always the case, regardless of whether the
meals are sumptuous or meagre, depending on the financial situation of the organization.

Towards the second week, we began planning the youth workshops together with Rhyan, assisted by inputs
from the youth members. On 1 January 2010, a small informal meeting was called to discuss the issues the
members wanted the workshop to address. Five members participated and aired the organizational issues
that concerned them. We also agreed on a schedule for the workshop, which was initially planned to last
three days. Members spoke about their busy daytime and weekend schedule – some had work, art
consignments, TESDA training or university commitments – and decided to conduct the workshops at
night, Monday to Wednesday, 4-6 January 2010.

Vince, Rhyan and I planned for the workshop intensively on 3-4 January. In reality, our designing phase ran
across the days of the workshop, as we found the need to base the following day’s activities on the
outcomes of the day before. We discussed extensively creative methods that relied less on writing and
talking, and more on artistic expression that we knew would excite and stimulate the artisans to dig deeper
into their psyche. In the end, the workshop took 5 days to complete, and employed methods of making
symbolic sculptures, skit/play-acting, group singing and marketplace activities. We kept material usage to a
minimum as we were all running on a tight budget, and instead found ways to use materials already present
in the Art Haus. We also decided on key facilitators for each activity, and decided to clear the shop area of
all furniture and objects to create an open space in which the youth can sit or lie on the floor, and move
around freely. We also decided to seal up the shop during the night sessions to discourage drop-in visitors.
After every session, or some time during the following day, the three of us would have an informal post-
mortem or mini evaluation, sometimes after talking to some of the youth individually about the night’s
activities.

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The design for 4 January’s night session: The Journey

We allocated the first day for the evaluation part of the workshop. To make it more meaningful, the night’s
session was called The Journey. The session worked to capture the personal journeys of change of each
member, as well as linkages with each other.

Several objectives were identified for the session: To capture the strengths, challenges, commonalities,
personal dreams, relationships of the members, as well as learning or lessons of the individual, and as part
of a collective.

The Design for 5 January’s night session: The Dream of 2020

This was a visioning and goal setting session which was called the dream. After the youth journeyed
through each other’s experiences, hopes, fears and learnings, they put those together in a collective dream,
which is the dream of the organization.
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The objective was for the youth to collectively express their vision of Dire Husi ten years down the line. The
skits were called “2020”.

The Design for 6 January’s night session: Planning part 1

During the day time, Vince, Rhyan and I took
some time away from planning the night’s
activities to review the points from the night
before and synthesize them into a vision
statement and 5 goals of Dire Husi. We did
this in reference to the organization’s
existing vision and goals. We decided to
centre the night’s activities on the five goal
headings.

The objective for the session was for youth

members to formulate a one-year plan for
A sketch of the marketplace activity we made as the
Dire Husi that is in line with their vision and
workshop was being designed
goals, so that the organization is clear and
focused on its direction for the year.

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8 January sessions: Planning part 2

We did not have a special design for these sessions. These were, in effect, meetings and discussions that
fleshed out details of the 6 January session. Everyone agreed that 7 January should be a rest day – we all
needed to take a break from the workshop and digest information.

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The night session on 8 January was focused on organizational related plans and issues as well as the
business and enterprise component.

Implementation Phase: Outcomes

4 January’s night session: The Journey

As explained, the main activity for the night was creating a symbolic object/sculpture.

Migs object was an empty water gallon

Jojo’s object was a phone
and charger
Phone represents
communication, and as
humans, we are nothing
without communication.
The phone was him, and
the charger was Dire Husi,
a source of energy and
power. And both are
created by God.
David’s object was a
designed tin can and a glass
of water
In the past, he was hard on
the outside, but empty on
the inside. Now, he is like a
cup of water. Like water, he
has talent that can be drunk
and shared with everyone.
embellished with items on strings
representing different phases of his life.
He sprinkled bits of paper in the gallon to
symbolize his life now.
When he was young, he did not have
much inner strength. During childhood,
he was focused on money, hoping for
presents from his parents. In highschool,
there were complications at home. As he
grew older, he began changing for the
better. Now, his heart is more open and
pure, and full with Dire Husi and the
people here.

Matthew’s object was a black charger

Rusty had a paper that he
tore up and put together
again, and an object with
coloured powder, water
and matchsticks that were
Petals had a dressed up
with a white adaptor.
bear as her object
His parents said he was the black sheep of
The organizer at the base
the family. He was like the wires, tied up
stood for what she wanted
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lit up
Since 1996, he grew up on
the streets hungry and
with nothing. Till he met
Dream Arts and Dire Husi
and his torn life became
whole again. He prayed to
God over and over again to
use him for His purpose.
He became a glass of
water, enriched by the
coloured powder – talents,
people, experiences and
Dire Husi. The fire in his life
was lighted, and he got to
know himself, God, and
how to be a real person in
Dire Husi, how to help
others.
Noah had a marker pen
with tape around it.
The marker pen was his
skills and talents, and the
tape the ability to fix his
own life and the lives of
others.
to accomplish. The Bible
was God as her foundation.
The shawl over the bear
symbolized her ability to
comfort others. Inside the
Petals bear are her treasures
from others, of people she’s
met. The watch symbolized
her goals to be
accomplished by a certain
age. She says her mission is
her generation.
Orwil had an origami star
He started as an empty
piece of paper, until he put
together an origami of his
life with 30 pieces of paper.
Different pieces make a
beautiful organization. Each
piece. Tensions exist in a
complex organization, but
the tensions also help
everyone improve. The
different people and
experiences are added,
modified, until they fit
together in a beautiful
whole.
Dire Husi Workshop Report
and messy, gulo. As he got older, he met
the white adaptor, which symbolized
Jesus. He now fits and can connect to the
power supply, which is God, and change
others with this source
Rhyan chose a green Christmas star
decoration
He had a dream of reaching the stars
when he was a child. He had troubles
growing up, joining gangs, dropping out
of school. He had a lot of false pride in his
various positions and accomplishments.
Till he reflected that he did not have real
friends, and his pride was taking him from
bad experience to another. He gave up his
unhealthy habits and found faith in God.
He began living life with this different
perspective, and believed stars will shoot
further together with everyone at Dire
Husi.
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Other members who shared, but do not have photos:

Janice said her life was conflicted, but strengthened by relationships –

friends, Dire Husi – that overlap.

Vince said her was like a wounded fighting cock, showing off even
though he was hurt, and would continue fighting like that till he died. He
realised his life was like that, that he would keep going until he broke
down. He got to know Dire Husi when he was at a low point in his life. He
then realised he needed to connect with people to constantly nourish
and refresh himself.

Sham had a pen with Shao Yi talked about growing up as a selfish child, completely self
colourful tissue tied around obsessed. Even in helping others, there was a strong element of self
it interest involved. However, the more she connected and built real
relationships, and was exposed to different kinds of people, the more she
Her life was like the tissue, learnt about true giving from the people she came in contact with. Dire
colourful, but without Husi has helped her so much, she wanted to help and work with the
direction. Now her life has organization in return.
become more focused,
becoming white and more
pure. Now she is like a pen,
where the ink is Dire Husi,
and the source of the ink is
God.

After a break, the commonalities in all our experiences were

synthesized. We discussed the commonalities and if they
were true to everyone’s different experiences. These are the
impacts of the collective, nourished by the individual
experiences of the members, that we wanted the
organization to take forward. These were written up on paper
and stuck in the Art Haus for the rest of the workshop days.

• Change making and influencing

The commonalities that become collective
traits and impact for Dire Husi to sustain
and take forward
• Openness and inclusivity
• “Dark” pasts
• Belief in goodness and God
• Leadership
• Feeling close (sabay, kaibigan, pakisama)
• Talents and potentials
• Confidence, thinking positive
• Helping others
• Uniqueness and craziness

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In the mini post-mortem after the workshop,

feedback was very good. It seemed as if people
got to know each other on a deeper level, while
at the same time connected very strongly to the
Future organization, even though we did not make it
explicit that they had to. There was good energy
going around. Our challenge was sustaining it.
We decided that we needed to connect the
evaluation session more closely with the
following visioning and planning sessions. Vince
came up with an inspiring diagram to push this
Past and
connection forward, connecting the past of the
present
members strongly to a collective future of the
Dire Husi.

In this diagram, everyone came from very different pasts. Each squiggly line is a person and their direction
in life. The lower left is where everyone is now. It is a small point of beginnings as a collective. Everyone
then grows at their own pace, in various trajectories, sometimes together, sometimes apart. Some may go
onwards to lives separate from Dire Husi. That is each person’s prerogative and unavoidable. Hopefully, a
large portion will continue to meet and develop with the organization. The question is what is the collective
future that Dire Husi members want to build together, even as they travel on their life paths?

5 January’s night session: The Dream of 2020

A group discusses the play in the kitchen Another group plans the play in the shop area

The main activity was a formation of two groups that will imagine: “What would Dire Husi be like ten years
from now?” The plays were aptly called 2020. The facilitators explained that now members have discovered
or rediscovered their past, it is now time to dream, and latter, plan to reshape their immediate future. The
groups took about half an hour to prepare for the play. They used materials and things in the Art Haus as
their props. The outcome was amazing, and oftentimes humorous. The youth had a good time creating the
plays and successfully projected their dreams for Dire Husi’s future.

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The first play showed Dire Husi as an established

organization, with the members leading and
coordinating various art, business and capacity
building projects, internationally and locally.
They were visiting delegations from the Middle
East who wanted their help in setting up similar
youth arts organizations and were exposed to
diverse cultures (drinking pork juice in the
Middle East). They met with American
representatives who ordered thousands of
instruments and crafts. They met with Datus in
the Talaandig tribal areas for community
Dire Husi goes to the Middle East to assist local projects and trading of art products. They also
organizations had art education and training for youth and
children.

The second play’s setting was planning for a reunion of the Dire Husi
founding members. In 2020, the members are spread all over the
globe – an international TV host, a famous artist who is one minute in
Thailand and the next in Switzerland, another who is completely
indigenized and living with tribes in Maguindanao, and members who
are in the head office coordinating Dire Husi’s work. They are all part
of Dire Husi International, which has many arms. It has an
international business and trade chain, which also functions at the
community level, and the Dire Husi Academy, a training ground for
underprivileged youth. They are also receiving huge orders for
products, and doing extensive recordings for music and performances.

From the plays, we shared insights and set out elements that were
strong in the plays. Some additional elements that members wanted
to see in Dire Husi but were not in the plays were also added. One of Dire Husi’s roving artists

These were overarching elements and clustered elements. These are outlined below; note though that they
are not in hierarchical order.

Overarching elements:

• Group of global leaders – sustaining to organization beyond us

• Friendships, working together, barkadahan
• Faith in God
• Adjusting to changing times – a support system for personal dreams and desires; accommodation
of personal changes
• Visual arts, performing arts, music, crafts

Business and trade

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• Export business of paintings and handicrafts, good business transactions

• Dire Husi International trade entity
• Fair trade
• Quality products, trading and production

Community and environmentalism

• Helping indigenous peoples’, rural or poor

communities – greening, trading, capacity
building, livelihood support
• Promoting the environmental or green
lifestyle

Youth development

• Developing new generations

• Support for academics and formal education
• Art academy, training centre
• Developing talents of young people
• Foundation, alumni, non-profit organization,
art school

Facilities

• Equipment, office space/building

• Media attention
The elements everyone finally agreed on • Internet, high tech communication

During the mini evaluation of the session, the few members we talked to continued to be positive about the
sessions, though tired. One thing realised through was that our poor time management of the sessions.
Despite continuously committing to start at 7pm, we usually started around 8:30pm or 9pm, and ended way
past midnight, around 1am. However, despite different efforts – eating earlier, asking members to com on
time – the sessions still always started at 9pm. We decided instead to focus on planning two to three hour
sessions.

6 January’s night session: Planning part 1

On this night, the youth of Dire Husi made concrete plans for 2010 for the organization. We decided to do
an ideas marketplace activity to give the creative youth freedom to move around the room, in the hopes
that the physical activity and unstructured discussions will stimulate their minds. This was the session that
required the most writing, which not all the youth liked to do, so the activity was made as interesting as
possible.

The youth responded enthusiastically to the activities, beyond our imagination. Almost everyone stayed till
the end of the session, which still, unfortunately, went up to 1am. The unstructured method of discussion
and inputs appealed greatly to the youth. The shop/sala area of the Art Haus transformed into a veritable
marketplace, with store sellers calling for customers, and the attention of participants drawn from one stall
to another. In the beginning, almost all were focused on the business and enterprise cluster, but as they
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became used to the activity, the youth began spreading out on their own to the other stalls. There was
much discussion going around the room as participants explained, questioned, debated and supported the
ideas of others. People got very comfortable with each other, entering and exiting the personal spaces of
each other freely. It became difficult to tell where one person ended and the other began.

Recapping outputs from the previous session and
discussing the new organizational vision
The new vision statement: a community of socially
and environmentally responsible young people
collectively working to develop the full potential of
their generation through the arts and
entrepreneurship

Listening attentively to a participant while getting Writing and putting their ideas up on the walls
comfortable

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The outcomes of the discussion were:

Goal: Social Enterprise and Business

Make loans available to artists for materials and Profit sharing for the artisans in all
production etc. A percentage of the profits/return products, services and performances, with
of investment will go back to the organization a percentage contribution to Dire Husi to
sustain the organization

Marketing through brochures of products

Set up a quality shop – retail, booth dressing, a
and services to schools, institutions,
tambayan or chillout shop, with wireless internet
wedding organizers, youth organizations,
services, music entertainment. Wi-Fi zone
NGOs, government agencies and private
business
A native coffee area entertained with jamming
Promote and market Recording
and performances, with a guide
Saturday night shows, original
promoting/selling artworks, explaining culture,
earn income from compositions,
and offers to tour the city
them marketing and
generating CD
Train and promote youth sales Intensify quality arts/crafts Crafts
for performances in events production, marketing, promotion business
(weddings, conventions, Dreadlocks – tokens
fairs etc.) making Henna tattoo, body and giveaways,
painting for special necklaces, bracelets
services
anklets, instruments
events, massage with
Market products through the internet –
music etc.
elect a point person for this
Product and handicraft
Recycled art development/design, and
Join and sell prints of mark up appropriately
artwork at Deviantart.com
Sell one-of-a-kind art works
Soil painting business, designing
cell phone decorations

Goal: The arts

Events and concerts Music Culinary art sessions Develop artwork and
quality products
Music production workshops –
Street junk art gallery on 9- Craft making –
composition, recording, editing,
21st street innovating, designing
mastering

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Goal: Youth development (growth of members)

Unwind... Youth development – Responsibilities,

Dire Husi members and other teaching (piano, guitar, organizational structure
youth go on an out-of-town vocals), motivation, exposure
adventure (e.g. mountain
climbing) every once/twice a Identify roles of youth
year Training in performance members, who stays in
attitudes and entertaining and out (of the Art
Art therapy Haus). Chores of
sessions Stage performance training – free for Dire maintaining the Art
Husi members and street children Haus and shop

Training, orientation and monitoring of book keeping, receipt keeping, domestic chores

Goal: Building connections and friendships

Online networking through Art workshops at public high Diverse youth camp
blogs, Facebook and Multiply schools – encouraging youth on arts and music
to express themselves

Summer party at the beach – Dire

Saturday night jampack bondings twice a month at
Husi will perform fire dances, live
the Art Haus. Each session focuses on an art form or a
music, henna tattoos. Promote the
featured artist
organization and win hearts

Goal: Community service

Support art in the city:
Events
Craft making for youth
(paid and unpaid
sessions – can connect
to business)
Music training with
indigenous instruments
Establish a driftwood
park, with gallery
Awareness and practice
of proper garbage
disposal on barangay
Nazareth
“Basura mo, karga mo”
Environmental care:
Recycle trash into saleable
products or decorations for
the barangay
For street kids in Divisoria:
Literacy and basic mathematics
Free classes on art, crafts, henna,
painting
Leadership and character
development training for non-Dire
Husi youth as well

Youth volunteer to clean up 9th street regularly

Tree planting and recycled art exhibits on environmental awareness in different parts of CDO
(Art month in February, Earth month in April)

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8 January sessions: Planning part 2

Organizational matters
Organization meetings will be held every 1st Tuesday of the month, after dinner.

Membership

• Identification: Identity cards for members, Dire Husi t-shirts, member profiles
• Process orientation for new members
o A committee decides on the acceptance of new members
o A month trial period for the member.
o An application form for the new member to reaffirm:

That he/she wants to be a member

He/she understands and is aligned with the organization’s vision

He/she understands the responsibilities of a member
o Rejection in extreme cases – even if new member does not meet the responsibilities,
commitments and vision of the organization, opportunity must be given for the member to
change and grow.
• Affirmation of the current members: 16 in total

Responsibilities of a Dire Husi member

• Open minded at all times

• Know and live by the vision of Dire Husi
• Inter-religious faith in God
• Inculcate a humanitarian spirit, maka tao at bangsat. Commitment to social change.
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• Have respect for each member

• Passion and commitment to serve Dire Husi, “keep the fire burning”
• Commitment to meetings and regular activities, while having the freedom to decide on level of
involvement in projects and said activities. Accept consequences of absences
• Have a private life, as long as it is not damaging to the reputation of Dire Husi
• Disciplinary action or problems with members is decided on a case-to-case basis by all Dire Husi
members. Dire Husi will talk to the member, investigate the situation and then hold a meeting to
make a decision about the member.

Art Haus rules

• Courtesy and respect

o Favours or requests to be asked direct and with respect
o Permission of owner to use personal instruments, unless the instruments are left in the
shop/main/public area.
• Accountability
o Artisans carrying products for sale at fairs etc. must give an inventory or sales report (the
reports can be written or oral, depending on the size of the consignment)
• Living arrangements
o Only members and their friends can homestay at the Art Haus, with permission and
monitoring of the existing live-in members
o All members share in the responsibility for food arrangements and house chores
o No smoking, drinking or drugs in the Art Haus. Drugs are also prohibited in the
vicinity/neighbourhood of the Art Haus.
o Drunk artisans will not be allowed to enter the house, unless in special cases.
o Free love is discouraged – no sex, public displays of affection or dating inside the Art Haus.
Artisans can do so outside the Art Haus. The rationale is that the Art Haus is a communal
and social space, so pairing is discouraged in favour of members mixing with each other.
• Contributions
o Members contribute to the running expenses of the Art Haus, to their own capacity
o Jojo will collect the contributions, while Rusty will keep the funds

Organizational/business structure

Committees will be set up for each art area, with corresponding committee heads. The committee leaders
will be responsible over activities and plans for the relevant art sector. This is to delegate responsibilities
over the entire organization to committees, instead of just the founding leader. These committee heads
were nominated and voted for during the session. Everyone decided to have two heads for the crafts
committee, as they wanted a leader for female and male targeted crafts respectively. Over the ensuing
days, sheets were passed around the Art Haus and members could put their name under the committees
they were interested in. Note that each member could be part of any number of committees. These
committees would then meet separately to formulate and implement business and art plans and activities.

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Personal conclusions
It was difficult to see the evaluation separately from the other needs of the organization – clearer focus,
united visions, plans that everyone could participate in, diverse ideas, balancing power relations and making
every effort an act of bonding and relationship building. The evaluation became more of a reflection on
personal journeys and the ways Dire Husi has helped each artisan in growing and journeying through their
life trajectories. It was what was needed at the time. The linking of participatory evaluation to visioning and
planning was crucial for Dire Husi. Constantly adapting to the needs, desires and psyche of the youth
artisans was necessary. Constant deference to who they were, where they came from, and where they
wanted to go as individuals and as a collective were what made the workshop successful. The challenge now
remains in turning these plans into concrete actions. But this is up to Dire Husi, and its band of committed
members and leadership to take forward. Their challenge is to realize their dreams while threading with
constant self-awareness, learning from experience, being participatory and staying humble and fair to each
Dire Husi member.

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