"TAWA"

I was off to the island province of Camiguin last February to document the blessing and inauguration of a meat production/processing facility of the Tubod Active Women's Association (TAWA). "Tawa" is also a Visayan or Tagalog word that literally means laugh.




Organized on September 2005, the TAWA has at least 15 active members with 5 new members joining the association early this year. Meat processing started out as an individual household-based business of two of the members. Running the business individually made it difficult for the two women to sustain the business as they could not keep-up with the cost of operations as well as the workload required for the business to grow. They soon realized that by running the business as an organization, the needed capital can be generated and sustained through capital build-up (CBU) and the workload can be shared. Furthermore, the enterprise will provide employment or income opportunities for the other women in the barangay/village.



With a starting capital of Php. 1,500.00, TAWA processed a total of 2 kilograms of meat into skinless Longonisa and Tocino. In the year 2002, the Resource Center for Empowerment and Development (RCED), a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Cagayan de Oro City provided technical assistance to TAWA in the area of organizational strengthening, capacity building and financial management. In the year 2005, the Philippine Australia Community Assistance Program (PACAP) funded by the Australian International Development (AusAID) provided the organization with funding support to finance their organizational capacity-building activities, start-up working capital, and infrastructure and equipment acquisition. The processing center/building is one of the infrastructure support the organization has obtained from the project.




To date, TAWA processes a total of 18 kilograms of meat in a month. The organization generates around Php. 5,000.00 per month. Because of the meat processing project, women in the barangay/village now have a venue for an alternative source of livelihood/income. Based on the Barangay Development Plan (BDP) of Tubod, majority of the women (working age) do not have a stable source of income. Majority are plain housewives.

Aside from TAWA, four (4) other people's organizations/community-based organizations (POs/CBOs) in the Province of Camiguin are being assisted by the PACAP-AusAID through RCED. Of the five POs/CBOs, three are women organizations. The other two womens organization being assisted are the Balite2 Sea-Kaunlaran Womens Association and the South Poblacion Womens Association. The Balite2 Sea-Kaunlaran Womens Association is into trading and processing of fresh and dried squid, while the South Poblacion Womens Association is into the production and marketing of banana chips.