Margery Tadaya lost her job when the food catering service she worked at Iloilo City temporarily closed because of the pandemic. She overcame her unemployment by working as a laborer in the Kalahi-CIDSS project.

Margery, along with five other women were hired as laborers in the fabrication of 177 handwashing facilities and installation of canopies at Barangay Cadabdab, Tubungan.

The fabrication of handwashing facilities and installation of canopies are part of COVID-response projects funded by Kalahi-CIDSS with local counterpart contributions from the local government and barangay local government units in Tubungan.

Margery,32 says women working in the construction of the Kalahi-CIDSS project are not new to her. In previous years, she had also done repainting jobs in the construction of the hanging footbridge in Sitio Dagaay.

Sitio Dagaay is only one of the four sitios in Cadabdab.

She says the inclusion of women in the highly male-dominated work like in the construction site is something that they appreciate. Women were given priority in the labor force. There are works that women can do.

She was tasked to remove the rust and repaint the angle and flat bars with metal primer for the handwashing facilities and canopies. Margery says the job can be done by women. It is easy.

Her children were telling Margery that it should be their father who shall do the work. However, with a reasonable explanation, she was able to convince her children given the situation.

Margery was appreciative that Kalahi-CIDSS has provided her a job even in the shortest term. Margery says she received P320 for each day’s work.

The amount she received from Kalahi-CIDSS was spent on buying the fertilizers for the rice land they tilled. They are about to harvest their palay in the third week of December.

She also saved some amount to start a barbecue business. She and her husband would sell pork barbecue, chicken intestines, gizzard, and liver near the Kalahi-CIDSS hanging footbridge project also in Cadabdab.

Margery says they earn an income of at least P200 per day. This may not be enough yet it would be a great help to their family.

She recalls how difficult it was for her and her husband when they lost their jobs. At times, they have to dig for yams in the mountains and sell them to buy their food.

They also planted sweet potatoes in their backyard as a source of income. It was not enough though. The Tadaya’s have to make ends meet to survive.

Margery says aside from providing her job, the handwashing facilities is significant in the fight against the spread of the virus, especially among the school children.

The height of the handwashing facilities varies according to the recipients. It will be distributed to 37 child development centers, elementary and primary schools in Tubungan.

She says the handwashing facilities were carefully built by workers since it will be used by schoolchildren. The children will likely to use it because it comes with liquid soap and easy to read instructions to use it.

Margery hopes that Kalahi-CIDSS will provide more jobs to women during this pandemic to augment their income and same time projects that are useful to the community. It is a great help to us, she says.#