Biomass Asia — Platinum BioCharBIOMASS ASIAPLATINUM BIOCHAR Invest / Partner
Community & socio-economic impact

School Aid MTÜ — the human heart of the Iloilo Rice Agenda

An independent, non-profit partner delivering farmer training, school and child support, and women's empowerment across Iloilo's rice communities — powerful impact, with an ironclad wall between charity and company.

Biomass Asia×School Aid MTÜ
The partnership

An independent partner delivering the community mission

School Aid MTÜ is an Estonian non-profit association (MTÜ) with its own governance, funding and website. Its Philippines programme — Kababayan (“countrymen, kin, fellow travellers”) — pairs Platinum BioChar for smallholder farmers in Mina with farmer training, school and child support, and community resilience with explicit women's participation. It is legally and financially independent of Biomass Asia Inc.

Visit School Aid MTÜ ↗
Governance

The ironclad wall — charity and company kept separate

For-profit

Biomass Asia Inc.

  • Produces Platinum BioChar and develops carbon removal (Puro CORC200+ via Carbonfuture).
  • Sells biochar and carbon credits at commercial terms.
  • Takes no charitable donations; returns flow to investors.
School Aid MTÜ
Non-profit · Estonian MTÜ

School Aid MTÜ

  • Donor- and grant-funded; runs the community & training programme.
  • Buys biochar at arm's-length with donor subsidy; restricted-funds discipline.
  • Independently governed; BAI treated as a disclosed affiliated supplier with an annual independent price benchmark.
No commingling of funds. School Aid MTÜ is a separate legal entity with its own board; the founders' overlap is fully disclosed and all dealings are at arm's-length.
School Aid leadership

The women leading the mission

School Aid MTÜ is led independently of Biomass Asia — reinforcing the wall between charity and company, and putting women at the heart of the community programme.

Nichola de Montaigne
Nichola de Montaigne
President, School Aid MTÜ
  • International-education leader — 20+ years across six countries and four continents; inclusive-learning specialist.
  • MA International Education (Leadership & Management), PGCE, BSc Developmental Psychology; IB PYP/MYP leader and founding international-school head.
  • Leads School Aid's global operations, fundraising and its ring-fenced Philippines programme.
Download CV (PDF) ↓
Maribeth de Montaigne
Maribeth “Bunny” de Montaigne
Co-Founder, School Aid MTÜ
  • President of Biomass Asia and the bridge to the community — 20+ years of community-embedded programmes.
  • Architect of the farmer partnerships and social licence underpinning the project.
  • Co-founded School Aid MTÜ to deliver the community mission independently.
Download CV (PDF) ↓
Annabelle Buo Ramos-Hermoso
Annabelle Buo Ramos-Hermoso
Chief Operating Officer, School Aid MTÜ
  • Veteran Filipino educator — three decades in public education; former Master Teacher I.
  • MA Education (Management & Supervision); licensed teacher and national trainer (MTAP; ELLN).
  • Directs School Aid's on-the-ground operations across the Philippines and Morocco.
Download CV (PDF) ↓

School Aid MTÜ is a separate legal entity; these leaders run the charity independently of Biomass Asia Inc.

Why it matters to investors

Extraordinary socio-economic impact — cleanly structured

The project's community impact is delivered by an independent partner — giving investors a powerful, verifiable ESG and SDG story without charitable liabilities on the company. This is the socio-economic pillar of Governor Defensor's SERBISYO rice agenda: lifting women and children out of poverty and addressing malnutrition in farming barangays.

~225

Farmer households

Year-1 target — income, training and soil health.

~1,100

Children supported

School and child support in farming barangays.

Women-led

Women's participation

Explicit and embedded across the programme.

Nutrition

Fighting malnutrition

Aligned with the province's Benteng Bigas / MoRProGRes drive.

Figures are School Aid MTÜ's independent programme Year-1 targets, shown with permission and subject to confirmation. Carbon-removal is reported by BAI under Puro CORC200+.
Global goals

Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 1 · No povertySDG 2 · Zero hungerSDG 4 · Quality education SDG 5 · Gender equalitySDG 13 · Climate actionSDG 15 · Life on land
Our community programme
Kababayan

Countrymen. Kin. Fellow travellers. In our tradition, kababayan is the whole village coming together to lift a neighbour — when a family moves their home, everyone carries it together. That is the spirit of the programme: farmers, families and partners lifting one another — from Mina, for the Philippines.

“Kababayan” — an original oil painting; a wedding gift from Maribeth de Montaigne to her husband David on their wedding day, 35 years ago.  ·  The programme is delivered with our independent non-profit partner, School Aid MTÜ.

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