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Church-sponsored Livelihood Project Among Women in Five Forest-based Communities in Catanduanes
Thesis Abstract:
This case study was conducted in order to analyze the influence of a Churchsponsored livelihood project on the women-beneficiaries at the personal, household, and local environment levels with emphasis on the gender structures and relationships of the member-households. The research was done in five forest-based communities in Catanduanes, two of which were located at the municipality of Bato while the rest were in the town capital of Virac. Using qualitative research design, the methodology was a combination of various techniques of data gathering and validation, which included: key informant interview, focus-group discussions, use of semi-structured and structured questionnaires, use of secondary data, and life histories of selectedindividuals. Tools for gender analysis were the main instruments utilized in drawing the following conclusions:
1. The Diocese of Virac Social Action Foundation, Inc. (DVSAFI), as a Churchbased nongovernment organization had been instrumental in promoting social development among the women-beneficiaries through the Grameen-Sabwag livelihood project, which contributed to the improvement of the socioeconomic status of the women and their households, their environmental awareness, and gender structures and relationship present within their households.
2. The Grameen-Sabwag centers had encountered some difficulties in sustaining their individual and collective activities. There were a number of factors that affected these women-beneficiaries in terms of their ability to save for loan repayment, attendance in center activities, farm productivity, and business profitability.
3. In terms of gender structures and relationships, the traditional reproductive roles of these women were sustained rather than challenged by the Churchsponsored livelihood project. However, such relationships were regardedby these women as complementary rather than contradictory and struggleoriented.
4. The livelihood project had been of help to the women socioeconomically. However, with the access and control to the project’s economic benefits, the women-beneficiaries creatively molded, to a certain degree, such economic power into social and political power and reasserted and pursued their own interests in the light of not only providing for the needs of their respective households but also satisfying their own needs as individuals. Such influence on these women-beneficiaries had not been perceived by the organization as part of its intention.
Furthermore, the increase in income had given these women the opportunity to uphold their own views and share egalitarian authority with the men in decision making and control of resources. Environmentally, the project had inculcated certain values in women that enhanced their inherent capacity and attitude toward their local environment. Personally, the women became more active and they strengthened their voices on matters regarding their status, though they have yet to articulate their desire for equality with men. Collectively, the project’s center became a venue where the women had opportunity to talk about their views and opinions regarding issues in the community without isolating themselves from the rest of the community. It opened up new horizons for the women.
