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𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫
“Seeing my fellows who continue to work also inspires me to continue,” said Ms. Myrtha Baliga, President of Ambassador Solo Parents Organization, one of DOST’s recipients in the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology (CEST) program in Tublay, Benguet.
ASPO was established in 2014 through the assistance of the Local Government Unit of Tublay. Its creation aims to encourage and empower solo parents to stand up and lead their families to become successful and contribute to the betterment of the society. It caters to solo parents with children below 18 years old. At present, it is composed of about 56 women and six (6) men.
Most of the members depend on farming or on daily on-call work offered in the community. In order to have other source of income, ASPO started a business on peanut butter production in 2017 with a minimal amount as starting and revolving capital. Ms. Baliga also offered a separate span of their abode as their processing area.
The processors are women who tirelessly travel for about an hour from Tublay to the City of Baguio to buy peanuts, process it in their production area and return it to the city for grinding.
To improve their production process, ensure product safety and improve product quality, DOST-CAR thru PSTO-Benguet assisted ASPO through the provision of peanut processing equipment in 2018.
Additional technical assistance to include product laboratory analyses, label design and printing were provided the following year.
Meanwhile, other government agencies such as the Municipal and Provincial Government and the Department of Trade and Industry also helped the organization through capacity building trainings and market linkaging.
At present, the project provides direct and indirect employment to about 16 women while other members also share from the income from the project.
“I am a single mother. I have two children, a high schooler and a grade two student. I’m thankful that the income in the peanut butter processing helps us in our daily needs. It is one of our sources of living aside from farming”, said Ms. Georgina Pumahing, ASPO member.
Ms. Baliga leads ASPO for about seven years now. “Leading others and sustaining the project need sacrifice. Knowing that there are families that benefit from the project drives us to continue. When someone is still there to show effort, it is where I, and we- draw strength not to give up,”she added.
WM