Teresita Vicente will never forget the sacrifices she made and is making in exchange for a brighter and easier life for her children. If one is to scale how determined she was to create the life she wants for her kids, it will leave them speechless and awestruck because, for the 60-year-old mother, her determination and will is immeasurable and inequitable.
Housing her family at Brgy. Arkong Bato, Valenzuela City made her determined to choose not to live so poorly anymore. Although she believes in the value of contentment, if one can still do more in life and pursue greater heights then he must do so. Living in regret is worse than living in the comfort of contentment. With a smile, Teresita recalled all her hardships and all that she had gone through to reach this point in her life. Ages ago, she worked as a laundry mistress for her neighbors and her husband as a construction worker. Together, they made a living just enough to support raising their two children. Every day for the family was a matter of assessing how strong their bones, muscles, mind, tears, and whole system are. It was all they know doing; to live each day looking forward to the same tomorrow.
With the days passing by and with no evident progress, she decided that only through overcoming her doubts in her abilities to do more can she reach progress and eventually success. That is why when the opportunity presented itself in the form of free training in sewing in Valenzuela City Hall, she grabbed and gripped it hard. With her newfound skill, she built a small sewing business in 2016. Through this, which together with her current job and his husband’s work enabled them to send their children to school- because as with any other parents, no matter how poor they are, they acknowledge that there is hope in the future generation, in the youth through education.
As Teresita sees the progress of her business, she planned on making her skill in sewing become her primary generating source of income. But being a small enterprise owner, the inevitable reality of inadequate financing for it disables her to do so. Luckily, she is a DSWD 4Ps beneficiary. This qualified her to be a member of a group that is intended to receive financial assistance through a Livelihood Program of DSWD.
The program that aims to finance and broaden the chance of improvement of small enterprises and to strengthen the entrepreneurial skill of start-up entrepreneurs provided Teresita Php 6,000.00 which she used to buy a sack of fabric to turn into rugs. Currently, she supplies companies around Valenzuela City with her made rags. She supplies approximately 20-25 kilos twice every month to Basic Corporation and FWCL Car Wash, 20-25 kilos every week to Cosmic Industrial Corporation, and 25-30 kilos twice a month to Ashlar Industrial Corporation. She is also active in her weekly savings and able to withdraw three times: Php 10,000.00, Php 8,000.00, and Php 10,000.00 respectively.
Now, Teresita has three sets of sewing machines and has continuously secured allowance for her children’s education. Choosing the path of change in her career really made a positive shift in Teresita’s life. Furthermore, now that she is not a Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiary anymore and her husband being laid out of work, the established business became a great help more than she thought it would.
“Malaki ang ipinagpapasalamat ko sa DSWD SLP sapagkat napili nila ako bilang isa sa mga benepisyaryo nitong programa. Malaki ang naitulong nito at nang aking natanggap pang puhunan sa aking maliit na negosyo, saking pamilya.” (“I am very grateful to DSWD SLP because I was chosen as one of its beneficiaries. It was a very big help to my small business, most especially to my family.”) Said Teresita.
As seen in Teresita’s turn of the story, it really is up to us how we can change our lives. We choose our own path, even more so, we create and build it. Thus, we need to make sacrifices in times that require us to do so, and we need to initiate taking a step forward because if not us, then who will?
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