PSHF

Adelina and Gaudioso, both in their 60s, are natives of Catigbi-an, Bohol. Adelina grows crops such as rice, cassava and leafy vegetables for home consumption. Gaudioso has not been strong enough to do farm work for the past eight years, due to complications from ulcers, and he tends their small sari shop.

Five of the couple’s six children are living in Manila and have their own families, whilst Pableo, their fourth son, and his wife Ellen are living nearby. Pableo has been working as a collector in one of the appliances centers in Tagbilaran, but he was recently caught with drugs and an unlicensed pistol in a drug bust operation conducted by the National Police, and he is being held in jail while his case is being heard. The couple were shocked by this and Adelina has secretly offered her savings to Pableo and Ellen, to help with Pableo’s food while he is in jail and to enable Ellen to visit him regularly. Ellen is working as a house helper in Tagbilaran, and Adelina and Gaudioso are now taking care of CJ (8), Ellen and Pableo’s only son.

 Adelina received a PSHF loan of 8,000 pesos to sell crops and firewood in August 2012. In January, however, she stopped selling firewood and crops, and used her working capital to buy stocks of noodles, canned goods and other products to sell from her sari shop. The change was because many of her neighbors were also in the firewood business and she did not want to have to cut wood herself from trees; besides, at her age, she was finding it difficult to carry and deliver firewood and crops to different stores.

 Adelina fully repaid her loan on time and is now applying for a reloan. Her new plan is to prepare “tinabal” and “ginamos”, respectively, salted small and big fish. She will use the loan to buy two big drums, a sack of salt and 40 kilos of fish that she will steam and then salt. This will require 7,000 pesos in working capital, and the balance of the loan will be used to repair her sari shop, specifically to install a new tin roof and screen and thus secure her goods from being stolen. 

Adelina learned how to prepare salted fish from a friend who specializes in this and sells it in the wet market in Tagbilaran. She will sell the salted fish from her sari shop at 150 pesos per kilo and she hopes her sales will bring about a tripling of her shop income from the present 500 to 1,500 pesos ($37) a week. This income will enable Adelina to pay for her husbandʼs regular checkups and maintenance medicine; he is vulnerable to bleeding when he is tired from doing housework. Adelina is most grateful for the PSHF assistance as it will allow her to make ends meet.

Ireen Ingles

PSHF Bohol

September 2013