New resource centers provided women vendors with both new sources of income and hope.
Davao del Norte - At the market in Panabo City, in the southern Philippine province of Davao del Norte, times used to be hard for vendor Remedios Homesillo.
"It was becoming so difficult to sell. We needed a new livelihood," said the mother of nine and grandmother of 20 who, with her husband, sold meat at the market for the best part of 6 decades.
But a project, backed by a $1 million grant from ADB's Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) financed by the Government of Japan, helped them break out of the cycle of poverty and debt. By teaching them new skills, improving their working conditions, and providing support for them as parents, the project gave new hope and sources of income to the vendors.
The project targeted about 1,600 poor women vendors in public markets in eight areas of Mindanao. Aside from Panabo, these areas are Mahayag, in Zamboanga del Sur Province; Ozamiz, in Misamis Occidental Province; Kidapawan City, in Cotabato Province; Surigao City, in Surigao del Norte Province; Cabadbaran, in Agusan del Norte Province; and Buluan and Parang, both in Maguindanao Province.
Nerve Centers
An important feature of the project was the establishment in each town of a women's resource center that provided space for training, a drop-in clinic, daycare facilities for pre-schoolers, cold storage, lockers, and washrooms. All of these services are available for a minimal fee.
The women's resource centers have become in effect nerve centers for women's activities-places where women can meet and enjoy one another's company, said Myrna Lim, Executive Director of the Notre Dame Foundation for Charitable Activities, Inc., Women Enterprise Development, the project's implementing agency.
"The project hopes to provide sustainable gender-sensitive social safety nets for women market vendors (and) improve the quality of their working environment," she said.
Vendors have hailed the centers as places where they can socialize and work together.
"It's a place where we can get closer to each other, see each other often. Not like before where we did not know each other and we were on our own," said Geraldine Aguia, a vendor in Panabo City and a mother of three. "We now have someone to turn to and we just do not go direct to City Hall. If we go individually, there is no action. As a group, we have their ear because we are more powerful."
New Sources of Livelihood
Change didn't come easy, however. In Panabo City, attendance at training sessions was dismal at first because vendors were reluctant to leave their stalls. Since most of vendors start their days at the market at 4:30 am, the women whom the project intended to benefit worried about forgoing potential market sales to attend a full day of training from 9 am to 5 pm But once women realized the benefits, attendance dramatically picked up.
Gabriela Ocaña, a mother of two who sells fruit for a living, attended training sessions on customer service and soap-making. "I have sold some soap, and my family uses my own soap, so we have also reduced our expenses," she said.
Popular with the vendors is training on preparing and handling food. Jean Sotto, who has been running an eatery for the past 20 years, has used the training to extend her culinary knowledge into new food items such as desserts. Her sister, Elvira Senuino, who assists her, attended a training session on how to make Christmas decorations. In 2005-the year she took the course-Senuino was able to sell P2,000 (about $50) worth of decorations.
Vendors are also taking courses in subjects such as herbal medicine, hair styling, dressmaking, and nail care.
Potent Political Force
A requirement before market vendors can benefit from the project is for them to be formally organized and to elect a board. Their association gives them an independent voice separate from the larger federation, which includes male members.
Recognizing the potent political force that the women wield, the vendors' associations have attracted strong backing from local politicians. In Panabo City, the mayor provided a P200,000 (about $5,000) microfinance revolving fund. In Ozamiz City, the mayor's office provides health services through the women's resource center. In Mahayag, the mayor immediately provided vendors with temporary stalls after their stalls were damaged in a market fire a couple of years ago.
The eight project areas are also benefiting under the ADB-funded Mindanao Basic Urban Services Sector Project, which is upgrading and rehabilitating much-needed infrastructure through a $30 million loan.
In Mahayag, the newly built municipal hall is funded with P14 million ($350,000) from the project, with the JFPR-funded women's resource center for vendors standing by its side. Mahayag-which won the dubious distinction of being the dirtiest municipality in Mindanao in 1997-became the second cleanest municipality in Zamboanga Del Sur Province in 2006.
The town mayor said the new municipal hall, which replaced a facility built in the 1960s, has helped Mahayag raise more revenues which, in turn, resulted in the town's upgrade to a third-class municipality in 2005. Department of Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Austere Panadero was so impressed by the building that he called it the "best municipal building in the whole Mindanao" at its inauguration in March 2005.
"We are proud of this building. Before, Mahayag looked like it was left behind," declared Mayor Paulino Fanilag. "Now, no more. People pay their taxes because they can see where their taxes go."
The women's resource centers and the infrastructure projects under Mindanao Basic Urban Services Sector Project are being completed one after another. In Panabo City, a new bus and jeepney terminal was completed at the end of 2006, and women market vendors have stalls there as well. In Ozamiz City, a new two-storey public market is being built to replace the existing dilapidated building where, as women market vendors often joke, it rains both inside and outside during the wet season.
"I am very happy that this project came to Mindanao," said Loli Aginones, a mother of three who learned to make and sell peanut butter, tarts, and macaroons through the project. "It's a big help to the women of Panabo. At the same time, I enjoy what I'm doing."
