Caba, PH – Family save for education and housing – 9 Aug 2014

Mr and Mrs TGL are in their late 30’s and both work on their farm, while Mr TGL also works as a carpenter to help support the family. Their three children are studying at the elementary school in their local community (barangay).

They plant rice, corn and vegetables on their land.  The vegetables are primarily for family consumption, while any surplus are sold in the local market to earn extra income for savings.

The family joined the Food Always In The Home (FAITH) garden program on July 19, 2013 with the goal to earn extra income and save it for their children’s education and repairs to their home’s damaged windows. The Happy Shine Garden Shop (HSGS) provided them training, garden building assistance, basic tools, materials and seedlings to start their garden. HSGS has also been providing ongoing mentoring on how to re-plant, rotate crops and harvest.

Water for the garden has been a challenge because the water source is approximately 100 meters from their home. Even with the water difficulty the garden has become productive because of how it was built and the maintenance techniques they learned from the HSGS team. The high productivity has enabled the family to sell surplus vegetables in the local market.

In addition to saving for education and repairing their home, they have managed to save some 5,000 pesos (US$120) which they plan to invest in a small business that would earn them more income so that they can save for their main goal, their children’s future education.  Their small mushroom growing operation is now profitable, so now they would like to apply for a micro-loan for investing in starting a furniture making business because the local schools want to place orders for chairs and tables and cabinets.