by Franklin P.
Gumapon
SIBUTAD, Zamboanga
del Norte - - Definitely shanties are no decent homes by any standard. But
these are common sights in the countryside.
Social Welfare and
Development Team (SWADT) leader Alex Sabal brought the Philippine Information
Agency (PIA) recently to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s
(DSWD) Self-Employment Assistance-Kabuhayan (SEA-K) project at Minlasag,
Sibutad Zamboanga del Norte to see how the recipients have benefited from it.
Negotiating the
rough roads to this interior town, the PIA staff came to interview some SEA-K
beneficiaries especially those who had received financial assistance under the
basic shelter component of the program.
Upon reaching the
place, Thelma Montano, the former president of the Minlasag SEA-K Association,
met and ushered the group to the Sari-Sari store put up and managed by the
association since 1994. Right there the interview between the beneficiaries and
PIA staff was held.
It all started with
the question, “What prompted them to form an association and put up a sari-sari
store?” Montano and her colleagues bluntly told the PIA: “We were all plain
housewives and jobless.”
A lively interaction
ensued covering a variety of information – related and unrelated ones
interspersed with laughter and sober talks.
Tita Garcia, the
current president of the association, said the Minlasag SEA-K Association is
composed of housewives belonging to the poorest of the poor. The group started
its sari-sari store business in 1994 with a seed capital of P20 thousand loaned
from the municipal government of Sibutad. In 1996, the DSWD also extended a
loan assistance ofP150 thousand to augment the association’s working capital.
Individual members,
on the other hand, have also availed themselves of some loan assistance called “seed
capital” payable within two years for their livelihood projects. Those who were
able to manage well their seed capital funds with some savings from their
earning would be qualified to apply for another loan assistance under the
SEA-Kabayan in the amount of P35 thousand of which P25 thousand would be used for
home improvement and P10 thousand for livelihood projects.
Four of the 21
members of the Minlasag SEA-K Association have already built decent homes and one
of them was Hermocilia Andog, 63, who together with her family was once living
in a dilapidated one-room nipa hut that served as their living, dining and
sleeping room.
With the help of
SEA-K, Andog is now living in a two-bedroom concrete house complete with
kitchen and comfort room.
A hardworking Andog
is engaged in camote (sweet potato) farming and her produce is more than enough
to pay for her loan and to answer her basic needs.
Thelma Montano, on
the other hand, also expressed her gratitude for the SEA-Kabayan project that
enabled her to improve her abode. Besides, she also got to finish her education
degree through SEA-K’s livelihood assistance. She is now an elementary teacher
of Minlasag Elementary School.
Today, the Minlasag
SEA-K Association continues to operate its sari-sari store and a copra buying
business with a working capital of more than P1 million. All of its 21 members
also continue tending their respective livelihood ventures knowing that nobody
can best help them but themselves. (FPG/PIA-Zamboanga del Norte)