By Erwin Nicavera/PNA
BACOLOD CITY — Efforts to improve the craftsmanship and culinary skills of indigenous peoples (IPs) and women groups in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental is being pushed by a non-government organization.
Checcs Osmeña-Orbida, vice president of the the PeacePond Farmers Association (PFA), on Friday said they are advocating for sustainable development and social enterprising among these marginalized sectors.
Their organization is part of the IP Support Group, which initiated the “Showcase of Purely Binalbaganon Products” at the town’s Veteran Heroes Park on Thursday.
Other collaborating groups and volunteers included the municipal government led by Mayor Emmanuel Aranda, Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office, and IP local coordinator Pablito Gonzales.
“The activity mainly aims to showcase the Alayon IP Crafts and Dagyaw Food Services Group, which are products of various development interventions previously provided by the PFA and the local government,” Osmeña-Orbida said.
Alayon IP Crafts is a brand given to handicrafts and other products produced by members of Ituman-Magahat-Bukidnon, a group of eight IP associations in the southern Negros Occidental town.
These IP associations comprise the Federation of Indigenous Peoples Associations in Binalbagan.
Dagyaw Food Services Group is composed of women groups, which has housewives, fisherfolk, and beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for members. They have undergone training on basic catering services and customer relations.
Alayon and Dagyaw in the local dialect both mean “bayanihan” or the act of helping each member of the community.
Osmeña-Orbida said they have discovered that the IPs have skills in weaving pandan and abaca, but they lack product development ideas.
This led them to conduct workshops on product development as well as social enterprise and financial management last year, she said, adding that the effort has resulted to such brand of pandan and abaca-made crafts.
“We also incorporated organic farming because they have to plant abaca and pandan so the approach was from planting down to weaving,” she said.
The association utilized Facebook to initially sell the Alayon IP Crafts online.
The PFA also revived the Dagyaw Food Services Group, whose members are recipients of various skills training, including food processing, conducted by the municipal government a few years back.
Through the Sustainable Livelihood Program-Bottom-Up Budgetting (SLP-BUB) of the government, these products were showcased during the said activity.
Alayon IP Crafts displayed the “Libon Kwadro” or woven pandan basket without handle; “Libon Timbulog” or pen holders and of other materials; and “Sobre Bags” or pouches with envelop-like shape.
Dagyaw group showcased a 48-foot snack table filled with food and delicacies like the “Purple Rice Passion” made of sticky rice with ube topping, cream and cheese, siomai, “linupak” made of banana, and cassava ball.
