Madalag’s women warriors

MANILA, Philippines - When the gender and development (GAD) CounciL of Madalag town  in Aklan province gathers, the group of women in their late 20s to mid-50s do not seem to have much in common besides their gender.

Princess Molas, 32, is a barangay worker who also volunteers in a non-government organization. Stephanie Macalandang, 36, is a supplementary feeding coordinator. Herminia Nacuspag, 53, is a member of the barangay and also serves as a family development sessions instructor the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Dolores Novial, 56, is a housewife who takes care of her three-year-old grandchild. These women of different backgrounds, along with 19 others, form the GAD Council.

Forming the GAD Council was part of the requirements that the town had to comply with in order to utilize the Gender Incentive Grant (GIG) from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the foreign aid agency of the US government, through its partnership with the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), a poverty alleviation program of the DSWD, and the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P).

Previously, the municipality was one of the two gender-mainstreaming pilot sites. GIG is the continuation of the pilot, in which the funds will be utilized to address gender-related issues.

One issue is the lack of employment and livelihood opportunities for women. Rhea Katimpo, 29, a day care worker, notes that only the men have work, aggravating the financial problems of the single-income families. Macalandang says the GIG provided the opportunity to help the women and their families.

She shares, “This will help provide families with additional income, through the women who will be able to earn to help improve the lives of their households. What men can do, women can as well.”

The lack of economic opportunities also posed self-esteem issues for some of the women, as they believed themselves incapable of being productive.

Nacuspag says, “You will have pride in yourself if you get to earn money.”

Nacuspag, who used to be a GAD focal person in her village for one of the programs of the Department of Agrarian Reform, volunteered to be part of the GAD Council. She shares that no one else in her barangay wanted to be part of it.

Molas had a more positive outlook when she found out that she would represent Barangay Cabilawan in the GAD Council, even though she did not know what her role would be.

Despite their varied reactions, these women stepped up to the task of being part of the GAD Council. They all saw the importance of their roles to their community.

While they knew that the opportunity will help the Madalag women earn money and develop their self-esteem, they did not expect that being part of the GAD Council will also empower them in the process.

Women empowerment was also one of the things Katimpo learned. “Women are not just errand girls. We need to show that just because we are women does not mean that we are confined to being wives and taking care of children.” She adds that her experience made her all the more motivated to help other women in her community.

It is one of the main goals of the DSWD to help Pantawid Pamilya partner beneficiary families become self-sufficient and have improved well-being, and the way to do that is through convergence of the department’s different programs.

It was through this group that they hit upon a solution which is to provide capacity-building trainings for both traditional and non-traditional crafts, specifically abaca handicrafts, plumbing, and welding, to 4Ps women beneficiaries.

The initial trainees can then train the other residents in these areas through the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), the third poverty alleviation program of the DSWD.

Their proposal presentation in the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum (MIBF) was easily the most memorable thing that happened for the women as members of the GAD Council because they knew that the approval or disapproval of their proposed community project hinges on their performance.

In coming up with their presentation, they all agreed that what they will need to do is to show to the rest of the people the reality of the situation. They enacted a skit to portray the life of typical Madalag women, particularly their struggles in terms of livelihood.

The approval of their proposal, however, was only one hurdle that the GAD Council had to go through. Even though it was the residents who approved the proposal, they were hesitant to actually be part of it.

This was partly due to the fact that the majority of the residents still believe that women should be confined to their homes instead of working.

It seemed that even though they could see the value in providing capacity building trainings to women, they did not seem too keen on the idea on actually joining these training programs themselves.

As such, the GAD Council members found themselves having to convince women to join these trainings. 

In many ways, the women went beyond their roles in GIG. They were now seen as harbingers of gender and development in their communities.  

The GAD Council members take their advocacy tasks seriously. Whenever they are given the chance, they try to share what they have learned to the other residents in their barangays to educate them.

These initiatives, coupled with the trainings already provided through GIG, have already shown some effects in the residents.  

At the time of the interview, they are also lobbying to have their positions as GAD focal persons formalized. With the official documentation, they will be able to perform their roles without fear that they will be ignored.

As Herminia says, “Kung iiwanan mo iyan, babalik iyong problema. ‘Pag andiyan ka, matatakot ang mga tao. ‘Andiyan na si GAD, baka magsumbong (If you abandon this, the problem will just come back. If you are there, at least the people will be dissuaded from doing these things. They will say, ‘the GAD representative is here, she might tell on us).”

One thing is for sure: these women warriors have no plans of letting go of their responsibilities just like that.