The Burnay Women's Livelihood Coop

A neighbour's pig pen

Lolita didn’t need convincing. She had been raising pigs all her life and she didn’t need me to repeat the calculation of costs to know that, if done properly, the potential income is double the investment. But would she be able to convince the other women she had started talking to? 

Nora, who was trustee and our community development volunteer, offered to come along and meet the women. As Carmen, our adviser from the Department of Social Welfare and Development had instructed us, just listen to the women, find out what they want to do, and help them achieve that. Nora, herself a former deputy mayor of the provincial capital Lagawe, now retired and grandmother, would explain that the women could divide their income between themselves and would only have to set aside enough for the next round of breeding. If the trust would buy them a dozen or so 45-day piglets once, and one more time after 6 months, then that would set them up to become self-funding thereafter. 

Lolita, Robert and Nora discuss the project.

“And what about the money you will lend us for feeding the piglets – don’t you want that back?” We explained that while we wanted to re-invest in other groups elsewhere in Ifugao, we simply wanted the women from Burnay to pay us back with ten piglets twice a year. These we could then either pass on to new groups or cash in at the local market. While the trust would manage their cash, with a separate bank account, how the money should be divided would be essentially their decision. We just wanted to extend the scheme further once it had proven itself and been fine tuned.

Robert inspects the piggery

The stables adjacent to the guest house would need only a little work to be able to accommodate multiple batches of pigs for fattening as well as a couple of breeding sows. We had invited Robert, our resident carpenter, along for the inspection. He kicked the posts holding up the piggery, and warned us that some repairs would be needed. No worry, laughed Lolita, that is what we have our men for.

As we parted, I said to Lolita ‘Simply tell the other women that we will find you money to pay for the first year, provide the stables and help you solve problems along the way. And then you just have to help us help other women. You can’t really lose.’