It was a gloomy, heavily overcast day on the 23rd of August, when I (Analyn) together with my colleague Phadelyn, set off for Mabinay, the second largest town in Negros Oriental, where PSHF has been operating since 2016. Our destination was the home of Lydia, our local field worker, and the journey was a three-hour bus ride followed by a 20-minute ride on a motorbike. We were lucky that we reached Lydia’s abode before heavy rain started pouring down. Waiting for us in the living room were five loan applicants, all women. Phadelyn first conducted the orientation, before I followed with the interviews.

 

Among the applicants was fifty-five year old Helena Quiñones. She was wearing long sleeves and pants and had put on a face mask. I assumed she was not feeling well and asked her about it but Helena said she was just covering her skin. She has a skin condition called Vitiligo - a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment. Small white patches started to appear in 2010 and as time went by they scattered and became bigger. Although it is not contagious, Helena feels it brings discrimination. One instance of this was when she was terminated from her job as a kitchen attendant in a restaurant in 2014. The employer’s stated reason was downsizing but Helena knew in herself that it was really because of her skin condition.

 

Helena and her husband Elpedio (58) have four children, two of whom are married and living separately. The second daughter, Manilyn (30) is also married but, four years ago, she separated from her husband and she and her three children, Christian (11), Rex (9) and Maine (5) went back to live with her parents. A year later, Manilyn went to Manila to work as a house-help leaving her children in their care. Ellan (19), the Quinones couple’s youngest son, is a grade 10 student in a local high school. 

 

The Quiñones couple both work as day labourers on farms earning 300 pesos ($5.40) a day when work is available. Manilyn sends them a monthly remittance of 4,000 pesos ($70) from Manila to help them out. The family also has a 2,500 sq. meter corn farm, the proceeds of which are milled for home consumption.

 

Helena is applying for a loan to redeem her coconut farm which was pawned in 2019 when Ellan underwent an appendectomy. The pawning agreement falls due this November and Helena is afraid that she will lose the ownership of the land if she does not redeem it by then. The farm has emotional value for her as she bought it from her savings when she was employed at the restaurant.

 

The farm has 25 coconut trees and, when redeemed, Helena and Elpedio will produce copra. They will hire someone to harvest the fruits and the couple themselves will do the extracting of the coconut meat and the drying of the meat in the sun. Helena expects to produce an average of 160 kilos of copra every three months. The current price of copra on the market is 40 pesos per kilo. With the additional income from copra sales, Helena and Elpedio will be able to buy housing materials to make repairs to their home. The walls of the house, which are made of “amakan” (woven split-bamboo panels), are now rotten and they have covered them with tarpaulins. Also their tin roof leaks on rainy days and so needs replacing.

 

It has been a pleasure interviewing and getting to know Helena and we wish her every success with her coconut farming.

 

 

 

Analyn T. Gallibot

PSHF Negros Oriental

October 2024