By Mutya Valenzuela
HAPI Chief Finance Officer
Mothers are often the central pillars of their families, and yet as women, they continue to face persistent inequality and injustice and bear the brunt of poverty. To overcome poverty, women must be empowered. When women are able to improve their lives, they transfer these improvements to the lives of their children, families, and communities.
That is why when I proposed to build a HAPI Chapter here in Malolos, Bulacan, I aimed for these four things:
- Create a database for our mothers and their children.
- Access to training that they can use for effective parenting.
- Sustainable Livelihood Program.
- Self-care, de-stressing, and creating time for themselves.
So far, I have already fulfilled numbers 1, 2, and 4. Now it’s time for the Livelihood Program. To kick it off, the HAPI-Bulacan Chapter came up with the Bigasan (Rice) Livelihood Program to uplift women.
The Bigasan store will help 20 mothers whose family earnings are below $45.00 a month. Initially, we aimed to give them ten sacks of rice for them to sell, but thanks to our donors, we were able to buy not just ten but 25 sacks of rice!
How does the Bigasan Livelihood Program work?
The mothers will sell the rice by the kilo; after they have sold all the rice, the income will be used to buy ten more sacks of rice with an additional three sacks of rice from the interest. After two months, the mothers of HAPI-Bulacan can get rice and have it put on their tab. They will then be allowed to pay within 2 weeks. Through this effort, mothers can sell and “borrow” rice from the livelihood program.
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”
– Michelle Obama
Thank you to all of our beloved donors for making this program happen:
- Humanist Global Charity
- Marissa Torres-Langseth
- Christian Fajutagana
