Women spearhead development projects

MANILA, Philippines - It is woman power at its best, and the community is the biggest winner.

A school building and two solar dryers in a coastal village in Maguindanao were constructed by Moro women the bayanihan way with the help of the World Bank.

The two-classroom building in the Saliguidan Elementary School at Barangay Polloc in Parang town is 78 percent complete and is expected to be used by grade school pupils in June when the new school year begins.

The school has 286 Muslim pupils, whose parents rely mainly on fishing and propagation of carageenan seaweed, commonly known as “agal-agal,” which is widely used as food, food additive or extender, and as organic emulsifier for medicine, ice cream and dairy products, and lubricants.

The two solar dryers constructed in Barangay Polloc by ethnic Iranon women, led by Hadjarah Sambolawan Macacua, president of the local people’s organization (PO), are now being used by farmers.

“Women in the barangay had a direct hand in the construction of these facilities. They worked under the heat of the sun, like real construction workers,” Macacua said.

The projects were implemented as a common endeavor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Social Fund Project (ASFP), the local people’s organization, barangay officials and the local government unit of Parang.

The ASFP is the conduit for projects of the World Bank in the autonomous region.

School principal Maradi Camsa, also an ethnic Iranon, said he was amazed at how the women-dominated PO managed to build a school and two solar dryers.

Yehna Ayob, treasurer of Polloc’s PO, said the implementation of the ASFP project in their barangay also provided them the chance to show that they are capable of hand-ling foreign-assisted community projects designed to address poverty and underdevelopment in Moro areas.

The ASFP is one of the special projects of the regional government, which has been helping thousands of impoverished, marginalized ARMM residents.

The ASFP, which started helping rebuild conflict-stricken areas in the autonomous region more than a decade ago, is presently building infrastructure out of a $30-million additional package the World Bank released in 2010.

The ASFP had, as of December 2013, either constructed or rehabilitated 87 school buildings in the ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Sayeed Abdullah, the municipal facilitator for ASFP projects in Parang, said he never doubted the capability of the PO in Barangay Polloc to accomplish the World Bank-assisted projects owing to the eagerness of community members to go out and do manual labor just for their children to have a classroom, and for farmers to have solar dryers.

“There was so much eagerness and volunteerism on their part,” Abdullah said.