Livelihood Support for the Women of Kinatarcan Island

SouthernPartners and Fair Trade Center, Inc. is a non-government organization and a social enterprise based in Cebu, Philippines, that is focused on practicing Fair Trade principles in trading and manufacturing.

In our 22 years of existence as a Fair Trade Organization, we have been helping the marginalized sectors of the society who needed assistance and opportunities in livelihood.

At present, we have helped over 840 households from the different communities we have reached out to, and currently, we are in the process of assisting livelihood projects in an island in Cebu, who was devastated and badly hit by the typhoon Haiyan years ago. This was the formerly "forgotten island" of the Cebu North, Kinatarcan Island.

The people of Kinatarcan have lost their homes, lost their resources and their sources of livelihood during Haiyan. Though they may have regained small sources of income at the present, majority of the island's population are poor, and cannot sustain themselves, earning as low as Php 2,000 per month per family (with an average size of 5 members).

In our journey of helping the poor people of this lovely island, we have so far stared capacity building trainings for Cassava Flour making, Moringa Flakes production, Unsalted Dried Fish production and Banig Mat Weaving.

With all these sustainable livelihood advocacies and activities, our funds can only go so far. We are not a big organization that receives funding for our activities. We usually depend on our income and resources to be able to run our projects and activities in the communities. We need help for building the structures for these industries we are developing (Cassava, Moringa, Dried Fish and Mat Weaving), so that the people of Kinatarcan may have stable industries that will greatly help in increasing their income and develop their sustainable livelihood in the island.

We would like to knock on some caring hearts out there, to help us in our goal of helping more people and continuing our mission to help reduce poverty in our country, which is one of our strongest advocacies as a Fair Trade organization in the Philippines.

Us in SPFTC and all the people who will be assisted with your help will be most grateful. This way, you extend a helping hand not only to a single person, but to entire families and communities.

Thank you vey much and we are looking forward to your support!