By Wenna B. Bendol

SAN REMIGIO, ANTIQUE—Fifteen minutes past 4’oclock in the morning. Gloria Juayang, 49, quickly gets out of the bed and proceeds to the kitchen. She fills the kettle with water, puts in on the fire, gets a cup, and readies the mixed powder of ginger and turmeric.

While she prepares breakfast for the family, she takes occasional sips of the tea she had prepared.

“It is very cold here early in the morning. Some label our place as the little Baguio because of our climate. To keep warm, we drink tea,” Gloria said in local dialect.

Her cooking sometimes gets interrupted by knocking of neighbours who go to their house to buy powdered turmeric or ginger for tea. They are a “hot” buy because aside from they are the only one in the area that is selling them, these products are also known for their health benefits.

Gloria’s family makes and sells ginger, turmeric, guyabano, sambong and lemon grass powder. For two years, it is their main source of living. It has sent her children to school and uplifted her family’s living condition. Among these products, turmeric and ginger are the most in-demand to customers.

Starting from scratch

Gloria met her husband, Johnny, while they were both working in a mall in Iloilo City in 1988. She was 23, while he was 25. They got married and two years later, their eldest was born.

Though they were both working, Gloria said, still they were having a hard time to make both ends meet as they were just earning a little above the minimum wage. Until they decided to settle at Johnny’s hometown in Barangay Aningalan, San Remigio, Antique.

He toiled a parcel of land owned by his parents while she sold whatever is their harvest.

“I was earning from selling vegetables but it was only enough for our needs. It was very hard. The children were all in school and we have to provide for them,”Gloria related.

Their brood grew to six. And poverty continued to haunt them.

“We could hardly buy the children’s needs, especially in their school. They were not able to join extra-curricular activities because we do not have the money to pay,” Gloria recounted as she tried to hold back her tears.

In 2009, Pantawid Pamilya was introduced in Antique. The Juayang family became one of the beneficiaries of the program. Seeing her competencies, her fellow grantees chose Gloria to be a parent leader.

“Pantawid was a big blessing. It really helped us a lot especially our children,” she shared.

Sustainable Livelihood Program

Her being a Pantawid Pamilya grantee did not only provide Gloria the opportunity to develop herself but also opened the door for her to entrepreneurship. Through the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program, she and the other beneficiaries were sent to San Carlos City, Negros Occidental to train on processing and making herbal products.

The abundant supply of ginger and turmeric in their barangay and the seed capital from DSWD’s SLP, Gloria trained her hands in processing these raw materials into tea.

At the beginning, it was a challenge, she admitted. It was a trial and error. The whole process, from the peeling of raw materials up to packaging, which is done manually, was strenuous. Good thing Johnny and their children are always there ready to help her. Eventually, her perseverance paid off as she finally captured the taste of the consumers. She also later tried other innovation by introducing different flavours and even tried making capsules out of them.

On November 15, 2012, John’s Health Products got registered with the Department of Trade and Industry.

“It is named such because my husband and my children’s names have ‘John,’” Gloria said when asked what’s with the name. “I draw inspiration from my children, my whole family.”All the couple’s six children are male.

With the help of the DSWD and other partners like the Department of Science and Technology and the Local Government of San Remigio, Gloria underwent training on product labelling and packaging.

John’s Health Products sell like hotcakes during trade fairs because aside from being affordable, they are proven and tested in terms of quality, medicinal value and health benefits. One of their avid customers is no less than Elizabeth Javier, the wife of Antique Governor Exequiel Javier.

The products can also be found in various stores in Antique and several souvenir shops in San Jose, the province’s capital town. There are also direct buyers, like the University of Antique, that acquire their product in bulk.

With these, the family is earning an average net income of as much as Php 20,000 a month. Gloria is now using her own money in running her business and is in fact awarded as Member in Good Standing by the Barbaza Multi-Purpose Cooperative, where she maintains a savings deposit, for being one of the biggest depositors.

Dreaming big

Producing powder health products for tea may be arduous but the Juayangs are not letting down.

“This business has brought us to where we are now. I believe anyone can overcome poverty as long as they dream and work hard to reach that dream. We don’t want our family to get through again the hardships that we experienced before, so I and my husband really work hard” Gloria said.

While theirs may not yet be considered a rags-to-riches story, Gloria’s unwavering enthusiasm to lift her family’s living condition will surely leave a dent and inspire many. For one their “small business,” as she describes it, has already kept their family afloat and enabled them to send their children to college. Her third and fourth sons are now in college taking up Civil Engineering and Criminology, respectively. The eldest and the second are now working in Manila while the fifth and sixth children are in high school and elementary.

The family venture also enabled them to upgrade their house from wood and cogon to semi-concrete and most importantly, pay and take back their mortgaged farm. Gloria also plans to purchase equipment that would make her processing of herbal products easier and faster.

An unrelenting housewife, with her husband and kids always by her side, Gloria will surely bring her family to greater heights. Her hands may be wrinkled and calloused but like Midas’ touch, they make wonders that every ginger and turmeric she touches eventually turns into gold.—With reports from Nicolas Banquero and Noli Valenzuela/DSWD6