DTI Calabarzon awards equipment to women microentrepreneurs

by Carlo P. Gonzaga March 22, 2021 Juana Laban sa Pandemya: Kaya. (Photo from Lagu...

by Carlo P. Gonzaga
March 22, 2021

Juana Laban sa Pandemya: Kaya. (Photo from Laguna PIO)

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna - The Department of Trade and Industry Region 4-A turned over equipment for Coffee Women Micro Entrepreneurs in Laguna and Cavite in support to the celebration of the 2021 National Women’s Month celebration with the theme, “Juana Laban sa Pandemya: Kaya.”

Under the Supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Philippines Project or GREAT Women Project 2, the equipment were handed over to women beneficiaries on March 16, 2021 in Calamba City and on March 17, 2021 in Amadeo.



The GREAT Women Project 2 is a project funded by the government of Canada that seeks to improve the economic empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs (WMEs) and their workers through improving competitiveness and sustainability of WMEs and the enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous challenges to many businesses, especially to our WMEs. We are hoping that through this technology assistance to our WMEs in the CALABARZON region, we would be able to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of our WMEs and to aid in their capital lost and decreasing sales,” said DTI CALABARZON Director Marilou Q. Toledo.



In Laguna, five sets of coffee storage equipment were awarded to Michael Pillas of Elbi Coffee Hub, a foot sealer to Lucilyn Villanueva of Mabato Coffee and HVC Agriculture Cooperative and a coffee cupping set to Michelle Dela Cruz of Casile Guinting Upland Marketing Cooperative.

In Cavite, a tabletop coffee grinder was given to Agnes Madlansacay of Café Amadeo Development Cooperative, a commercial coffee grinder each to Olivia Lansang of Olivia’s Coffee Seed Shop and Arsenia Lopez of She Brews Coffee, and a foot sealer to Bettina Grace Belardo of Belardo Coffee Enterprises.



Eleanor Medina, owner of ESM Food Products and a beneficiary of the Packaging and Labeling Project under the Industry Cluster Enhancement Program, was awarded with packaging prototypes with the improved logo and packaging label design. The ICE Program seeks to develop priority industries through institutional development, industry strengthening and cross sector collaboration among government, private and non-government organizations across the different areas in the value chain.

In the recent efforts, the Philippine Commission on Women, the lead executing agency for the project in partnership with other agencies of the Women’s Economic Empowerment - GREAT Women Project 2 (WEE-GWP2), rolled out an impact study in 2020, which assessed the situation of the WMEs.

The study revealed that majority of the WEE-GWP2 enrolled WMEs had been hard hit. Majority of respondents reported to have stopped production and operation. Employees and members of the organizations accounted 75% decrease to no sales at all, and 64% said they no longer have enough capital available. (CPP, PIA-4A with report from DTI-CALABARZON)