SPARK! meets with BCG project partners (Photo courtesy of SPARK! Philippines)
From left: Junalyn Alivio, (Boholana Essentials), Dr. Carolyn Mae Daquio (Center Director, ATI-7), Joy Angeli Uy, President (Bohol Assoc. of Hotels, Resorts, Restaurants), Dalareich Polot (Dalareich Food Products), Governor Arthur Yap, Maica Teves (SPARK!), Duke Minoza (KaBoom and Buenaventura Farm), and Larry Pamugas (Office of the Provincial Agriculturist)
By Alithea De Jesus
As the New Year calls for a new beginning, SPARK! Philippines together with the Australian Embassy and the Province of Bohol unveiled their Bohol Communal Garden Project last January 15.
The said project is set to empower women and connect them to commercial establishments to become reputable suppliers of farm products. But all of them will undergo a series of training and will lead their own communal gardens.
The valuable support of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines via Direct Aid Programme, Office of Governor of the Province of Bohol, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist of Bohol (OPA), Agricultural Training Institute Region 7 (ATI-7), Municipal Agricultural Office, Dalareich Food Products, and Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts, and Restaurants, will certainly provide opportunities to the community and empower the women.
The Bohol Communal Garden Project will pave the way to the economic development and intervention and also harness rural women’s capability in sustaining communal gardens to achieve community food security. An agricultural base provides a local food source for the community.
While the community provides new markets for farmers through commercial distribution. This will allow rural women to establish their agency and independence by leading their respective communal gardens.
Serving women from five different municipalities in Bohol, the BCG aims to re-engage rural women in entrepreneurship and train them through a series of modules on food sovereignty and security, digital marketing and sales literacy, leadership and management, values formation and gender and development. The project also intends to connect its beneficiaries to restaurants, hotels, resorts, schools, other communities, and commercial establishments to become trusted and reputable suppliers of farm-to-table products.
SPARK! will be opening a branch in Bohol to expand the organization’s reach and help even more communities of women this year.
Should you have any questions about the Bohol Communal Garden Project, you may coordinate with Dalareich Polot at +63 9496340465 or email at dpolot@sparkphilippines.org