Our hearts are filled with joy.  The livelihood training workshops which Synergeia has been conducting under the ADB TA “Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 through Community-Led Interventions,” funded by the People’s Republic of China Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund (PRCF), have provided hopes for a better life for many trainees in Marawi, Omar and Tamparan.

Jamail Batingolo is one of our trainees in the vegetable gardening from Marawi City.  He knew nothing at all about vegetable gardening.  But after his training, he made a life-changing shift from driving a tricycle to vegetable farming which he thinks is a safer and healthier way of earning a living.  

Jamail is considered a leader among their group of trainees.  He is full of enthusiasm whenever he shares their success in vegetable gardening.  Their group found a wholesale buyer from Iligan who bought their produce at P17,000 gross. The members had an equal profit share after deducting their expenses and setting aside seed money.  we are assured that their “business” will continue.  The budding farmers have become entrepreneurs as well.

Jamail and his group are thankful to the ADB for allowing them to improve their livelihood.  This video of Jamail Batingolo shows him expressing his joy and gratitude:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ieHrfDeNx7mkZ8JzkFoJ6QzMewNCu5P_/view?usp=share_link

“To be honest, Ma’am, we don’t really know how to grow crops but we learned because of the training. We planted pechay, eggplant, cucumber, and beans. By God’s mercy, we were able to harvest, sell and buy some rice and sugar from our profit. We set aside funds to buy seedlings. Because it has been raining now, the vegetables are less desirable compared to the first batch. But it is okay because we can eat them if we cannot sell them. We are very happy.  Everyday, we wake up and see the fresh vegetables we have planted.  We harvest some and cook them so we don’t have to buy food outside.”