By YOLANDA Z. SOTELO

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em>Behind a successful man is a woman; Behind a successful woman is herself.
GOT that quote from the email. Don’t argue with me. I’m not in the mood for any argument. I will just tell you the story of village women in San Nicolas town, who were able to improve their economic lives, and ultimately, able to help their husbands, too.

The womenfolk of Salingcob village, all of them stay-home housewives and mothers, started an organization in 1998 when the Provincial Population Office (PPO) identified the village as a potential area for the program “Improving the Status of Women in Pangasinan.”

The PPO personnel selected 100 women of reproductive age as prospective beneficiaries, 30 of whom participated in organizational mechanics and teambuilding training. Twenty seven remained as core members.

On October 1999, the association acquired a legal personality when it was registered with the Department of labor and Employment as an association of rural women workers.

The women eagerly undertook various projects in coordination with village officials. The projects include clean and green, reforestation through planting of forest trees, supplemental feeding of malnourished children, and dredging of creek tributaries.

But more than helping in community-oriented projects, the women wanted to be economically productive. So they started to collect P20 for Capital Build Up (CBU) and P10 for savings, an obligation that they religiously paid. At present, the CBU is P50 and the savings is P50, both monthly.

With the help of the PPO, the women obtained a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines –United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, three months after the organization was registered with the DOLE. The amount (P125,550) granted on December 1999, was loaned to 12 women who used it for hog fattening projects.

The amount was fully paid six months later, and the women again obtained a loan for P139,600 which was again used for hog fattening projects.

In all, the organization was able to obtain P3 million from the LBP-UNFAO until August 31, 2003.

The women ensured a market for the fattened hogs by executing an agreement with a buyer from Baguio City. They also asked for discounts for feeds from the Aleya Agricultural Supply in the town.

Now, here’s what show how strong and dependable women are when it comes to managing their resources. There was no more loan from the bank, but after three years, they have saved enough funds to continue their re-lending operations.

They have also recruited menfolk from their village and the women’s organization was transformed into a cooperative, still manned (no pun intended) by the women who have been trained on managing their own organization.

I said I will not argue with those who find the above quote offensive. But there are many stories both in the city and in the fields, that tell of how women were able to rise above economic hardships through their own grit. With a little help of course, from lending facilities.