Hurdy Francis Palma, 38, finds confidence in farming ubi since becoming a beneficiary of the Sustainable Livelihood Program. Not only he was given training on ubi harvesting, but he was also given better opportunities to market his products through the help of the Sagisag ng SEA-K Association, a group composed of SLP beneficiaries in their locality who acts as middleman between poor farmers like him and big ubi buyers.***

 

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Ubi para sa lahat

Six years ago, Giselle Perigrin wishes nothing but improve her family’s living condition. Today, however, she has 8 other families to dream for as well as the hundreds of the poor families in her community.

Giselle, 38, a resident of Brgy. Ilayang Tayuman in San Francisco, Quezon Province, is the president of the Sagisag ng SEA-K Association in their municipality. The said group is composed of members of poor families like her who are given the opportunity to change not just their lives but others, too.

Dreaming for everyone

The Sagisag ng SEA-K Association was formed under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). As an association, they were provided with capital seed assistance amounting to Php80,000.00, which is equivalent to Php10,000.00 per member.

The SLP is a community-based capacity building program that seeks to improve the socio-economic status of program participants through the Community-Driven Enterprise Development (CDED) approach. This helps the beneficiaries to actively contribute to production and labor markets by making use of available resources and accessible markets.

With ubi as the major crop in their locality, the association used their start-up capital in buying and selling ubi as well as in lending ubi seedlings to poor farmers.

According to Giselle, their services are not only geared towards helping all their members earn morefor their families.

“Pag bumibili po kami ng ubi sa mga magsasaka rito, hindi naman po kami kumikita ng malaki. Ang sa amin lang, gusto namin silang tulungan para mas mapadali ang pagbebenta nila ng produkto habang kami naman ay tinutulungan nilang magkaroon ng dagdag kita sa aming samahan,” Giselle shared.

For Giselle and the rest of the members of Sagisag, what they want is for every poor family in their locality to succeed with them.

“Pare-pareho naman po kami ng pinagmulan dito. Ang gusto namin, magtulong-tulong kami para sabay-sabay ang aming pag-angat,” shared Estrella Atienza, 40, a Sagisag member.

Hurdy Francis Palma, 38, another beneficiary of the SLP, is thankful to how the services of Sagisag complement their source of living.

Hurdy is a member of the Ubi Harvesters Association in Brgy. Ilayang Tayuman. Like Sagisag, their association is a beneficiary of the SLP that was provided with capital assistance. Their focus, however, is in the production of ubi where all members were trained on basic business management and ubi farming prior to the provision of capital assistance.

“Noong wala pa kaming natatanggap na puhunan, humiram muna kami sa Sagisag ng binhi. Iyon ang ginamit namin sa unang taniman at binayaran na lang namin ‘nung natanggap na ang puhunan. Noong nakaani na kami, sila rin ang bumili ng produkto sa amin. Mas maginhawa para sa amin ang ganitong sistema,” Hurdy shared.

Giselle shared that her members are continuously working together with a common goal—which is to invest on machineries so they can manufacture other ubi products such as flour.

“Pinapanatili po naming matatag ang samahan at talagang nagtutulungan po kami para lahat kami ay umunlad,” Giselle shared.

 

Starting small

Giselle and the rest of the members of Sagisag have individual dreams prior to the creation of the association. Giselle, for one, wanted to provide a better life for her children.

Giselle recounts how she would try her best cooking ‘bukayo’  just so she can augment her husband’s income as a tricycle driver.

It was in 2008 that Giselle’s dream finally became closer for her to reach. They became a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, another social protection program of DSWD alongside SLP that provides conditional cash grants to poor families to support the health and education of children.

“Naging malaking tulong po sa pamilya namin na naging kasali sa programa dahil ‘ yung pag-aaral ng mga bata, talagang natutukan na namin. Nagkaroon na rin ako ng maraming kakilala sa pagdalo ko sa mga pagpupulong kaya dumami ang bumibili sa aking paninda,” she shared.

After two years of being a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilya program, Giselle’ family also became a qualified beneficiary of the Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) program, now referred to as the SLP. The SEA-K targets Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries and equips them withthe capabilities start a micro-enterprise ventures for them to improve the socio-economic status of their families and later achieve self-sufficiency.  The beneficiaries of this programs are also provided zero-interest capital assistance as a start-up capital to their micro-enterprise.

Giselle, who loaned Php10,000.00, bought a tricycle in an installment basis. Having a tricycle of their own, her husband brings home more income. After a year, Giselle successfully paid off the loan and eventually, the tricycle.

More than the money, however, Giselle is thankful to what these programs taught her, especially in managing their finances and keeping an eye on their business. Today, besides her husband’s income as a tricycle driver, she continuously sells ‘bukayo.’  According to her, she is able to earn more than a thousand pesos in a single order.

With this change in their life, Giselle and her husband are able to support most of their family’s needs. In fact, two of their four children are now in college.

For Giselle, she is already closer to reaching her dreams for her family, but she won’t stop working hard until the dreams of the whole community are achieved, too.***