BY MAY RAGO-CASTILLO

SAN REMIGIO, Antique-Scarcity in life has stalled success among most poor families. But for an Antiqueno and his family, they have won the battle.

Fifty-three-year-old Vicente Rubino of Brgy. Vilvar, San Remigio, Antique could only shake his head as he recalled how his first four children have not reached college or even vocational course because of poverty. As much as he wanted them to complete a degree, their situation simply did not allow them to do so.

Vicente is married to Susan with whom he has eight children. He named them as 29-year-old Anelsan, 27-year-old Annaliza, 22-year-old Annie Rose, 21-year-old Ana Marie, all married; 20-year-old Gentle Touch,  19-year-old Vincent, 17-year-old Annabel and 12-year-old Ana Teresa.

Life slowly became better when they engaged in a small business by selling green leafy vegetables at a stall in the public market of Brgy. Poblacion. They initially had a capital of P3,000 which came from his salary and the savings of his wife from vegetable vending.

Vicente was even more thankful that his family directly benefited from the convergence strategy of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The strategy, which aims to achieve maximum results in implementation, has three core programs—Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, KALAHI-CIDSS or Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan and Sustainable Livelihood. Beneficiaries of Pantawid who are soon ending the five-year period of availment of cash grants are targeted to avail of the livelihood program. Their community, on the other hand, is covered by KALAHI for them to identify their problems and propose and implement solutions.

“My family benefited from these three projects. We received cash grants to send our children to school and buy their vitamins. We also received a seed capital of P8,000 and our community is an area of KALAHI,” said Vicente.

According to him, he has tripled the space that they are renting at the market and expanded the small business to a mini grocery and vegetable store already when they received the seed capital a few months back.

“The government has given my family a gift that will never be forgotten. This is hulog ng langit and I am happy to say that the capital was really put to good use,” he said.

He added that they were also accessed to the Cash for Training program, a partnership program of TESDA and DSWD, for his daughter Gentle Touch to undergo a 55-day-course on Housekeeping Management.

“I wished that her elder sisters had the same opportunity. If life was better way back then, I could have sent them to college. I am happy though that my younger children are now getting better chances,” he said.

His mission: a leader
Vicente, however, reads all what has been happening to him and his family as also a mission.  Assigned as a Barangay Sub-Project Management Chairman (BSPMC) in Vilvar, he said he has learned many things such as the importance of awareness in the community, identifying their problems to implementing projects. Currently, they are in the preparatory phase of their road construction project.

“This is purely volunteer work and we are not being paid. I believe that this is my mission and I am happy because it is for the improvement of our barangay,” he said.

Gentle Touch
For her part, Gentle Touch is all positive as she is about to start her nearly two-month course in Housekeeping at TESDA on July 1.

“We were told that after finishing the training, TESDA will also be helping us to find a job. I am so happy because I have qualified in the program. If I land a good job, I could help my younger siblings and my parents. I could even help my elder sisters to go back and take college or vocational courses,” Gentle said.

His dream
Vicente ended narrating his story saying, “ang pangarap ko sa buhay ay ang makatapos ang aking mga anak sa pag-aaral at maabot ang kanilang mga pangarap sa buhay nang sa gayon ay hindi sila matulad sa amin.”/dswd6