With her years of experience as a seamstress, Felomina Abejoro can sew almost anything–from clothes to curtains and bedsheets. However, despite her skills, she earns a living through sewing small rags. 

Felomina, a mother of four from Brgy. Pacifico in Sta. Teresita in Batangas Province, shares her struggles of having very limited resources to invest on materials–the reason she opted to sew rags from cheap scrap fabric as raw materials.

“Natutugunan naman namin ang pangangailangan. Yun nga lang po ay sakto lang sa amin. Kung hindi po talaga kami magtatrabaho ng asawa ko, wala po talaga kaming pagkukunan,” shared Felomina whose husband works in a sugarcane farm earning PhP280 a day.

Things became more challenging when the CoVid-19 outbreak hit in 2020.

“Naipon po dito lahat ng item. May mga buwan po na wala talagang pumapasok na kita. Sa kakulangan po ng panggastos, umabot na kami sa pangungutang,” shared Felomina, who added that aside from difficulties acquiring raw materials, customers were not able to pick up their orders due to the limitations when community quarantines were imposed.

During those times, they relied on her husband’s income. But with the very minimal daily take home pay, they struggled to make ends meet. Felomina availed of livelihood assistance being offered to small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Last December 2020, upon assessment of her business capacity, the livelihood assistance for sewing business was approved and she received a Php10,000.00 grant not long after.

“Noong natanggap ko po ‘yong Php10K na assistance, bumili po ako ng dagdag na materyales para sa ibang produkto gaya ng bed sheets, kurtina, sofa covers para makapagsimula na na muli ang aking tahian,” Felomina shared.

With the added materials and sewing supplies, Felomina was able to get more customers as she also began accepting different sewing jobs.

“Mabilis pong nakabangon ang aking negosyo. Normal na po ulit ang kita ko tulad nung bago mag-pandemic. Kung sakali pong dumami ang mag-order, agad ko na pong magagawa kasi nandyan na lang po ang materyales,” she shared.

After merely two months of operation, Felomina and her family were able to recover financially. Their bills and loans are already paid up and they are now able to afford all their basic needs and even save a little. 

Felomina also happily shared that they were able to buy her daughter a cellphone for her online classes.

“Napakalaking gaan po sa pakiramdam na sapat na uli ang aming panggastos sa araw-araw,” Felomina shared.

Right now, Felomina is focused on gathering more customers to earn more and save more for her family. 

“Maraming salamat po talaga sa tulong na ibinigay sa amin para makasimula muli ang aking patahian. Ayaw na po naming magipit ulit tulad ng nangyari sa amin noong lockdown, kaya po pagsisikapan po talaga naming pamilya ang kumita at mag-ipon sa abot ng aming makakaya,” Felomina shared.

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Felomina’s family is one of the 3,863 families whose income had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic  in Batangas Province.  These families were provided livelihood assistance under the Livelihood Assistance Grants (LAG) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development last December 2020.  The assistance aims to augment the unnecessary expenses incurred by the families due to the pandemic and subsequent community quarantines and enable them to resume their respective micro-enterprises or small businesses.  This enables them to respond to the needs of the families on their own.

To date, there are 44,412 families served under LAG throughout the CALABARZON Region. Each of these families received livelihood assistance amounting between Php5,000.00 to Php15,000.00 depending on the assessed financial needs necessary for the restart of the business.***