SAFE, FRESH and healthy food for their children, additional income to sustain their needs and an everyday activity that brings their family closer together. This is the success story of two single mothers, sisters Elenita and Erna Dela Peña, in the village of San Agustin in Madridejos, who participated in the Provincial Government’s Sugbusog program.
The 46-year old Elenita said
she was forced to leave her job to look after her two children following the
death of her husband died. And Erna, 41, lost her job at a local hardware store
when it closed down at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
Both unemployed and with
mouths to feed, the sisters thought of utilizing the unused area outside their
house to grow crops for their own consumption. It just so happened that
their village chieftain was going around announcing that the Sugbusog program was
distributing free seeds for those who wanted to start a vegetable garden.
The Dela Peñas availed of
the free seeds and began planting bitter gourd or ampalaya in May last
year. “Sa una, kining among lugar mga saging ni siya
tanan. ‘Nya naabtan sa Bagyong Ursula, ‘nya mao nang nag-vegetable na lang. Naa
gihapo’y saging sa kilid pero gamay ra man ang kita sa sagingan, mao utanon
nalang amo gitanom,” Elenita told Sugbo News, adding, they have since
sold 180 kilos of bitter gourd.
She and her sister worked
together to build trellises for the bitter gourd using bamboo and tied it with
a rope to secure them. “Kami ra gyud duha nagporma ani,
‘nya among mga anak ang mububu,” Elenita said.
More than a month later,
the sisters finally able to harvest from their garden and started selling
vegetables to their neighbors and teachers at a nearby school. Soon after, they
started planting other kinds of vegetables - eggplant, herbs and other spices,
including medicinal plants upon the requests of their customers.
Elenita now also makes her
own organic fertilizer using banana peel, apple, grapes and molasses, which she
ferments for a month. She adds two tablespoons of the mixture to a liter of
water and sprays it to the plants. She also makes her own organic pesticide
using vinegar and chili pepper mixed with water.
The sisters created their
own water system to collect from their deep well. First, they manually
fetch water from the well, load it into a recycled container with a hose
attached to it. The water then runs through the hose to the other side of the
garden and into a basin to be used by the children to water the plants.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia,
who heard about the sisters’ vegetable garden and how they work hard for it, visited
them recently and said she really appreciated their efforts and sacrifices they
made for their families.
Garcia even promised to
donate a water pump after learning that the two have been saving money to buy
one for their deep well so they would not have to manually collect water. Elenita
and Erna could only cry in gratitude and thanked Garcia, who said her Sugbusog
program is to ensure that there will be fresh and ready-to-eat food on the
table.
According to Erna, not only
have they been able to provide food for their children, but they made sure that
what they feed their kids is not only fresh and nutritious, but organic as well.
“Dako kayo kinig tabang ning pagtanom sa backyard. Food
security, ba. Makasiguro mi nga way chemicals tapos additional income sad. Tapos maka-inspire kami sa uban mama nga magtanom,” Erna said.
Elenita said she did not expect to reap a bountiful harvest from their garden since she only wanted to feed her children fresh and healthy food. To earn an extra income from their efforts was a bonus, she said.
“Ako sad ingnan ang uban nga
pananom sad mo bisan wala moy luna bisan container lang okay ra na basta naa lay tambok nga
yuta,” she said.
Erna and Elenita’s garden
took home the first prize for the backyard gardening category in the
municipality level. They received P5,000 during the recent awarding of
municipal winners of Sugbusog program.
Their garden will go on to
compete with other household backyard gardens in other towns. (Paula Joy
Mendoza)
Like Us on Facebook: The Mindanao Examiner
Like Us on Facebook: The Zamboanga Post
Follow Us on Twitter: Mindanao Examine
Mirror Site: Mindanao Examiner Blog
Digital Archives: Mindanao Examiner Digital
Media Rates: Advertising Rates
No comments:
Post a Comment