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Blessings overflow for Manang Edna

There is no way to describe Edna Bayubay but as a woman of courage and perseverance.

This 55-year old mother from Barangay Poblacion, La Paz, Abra is an epitome of strength and passion. Over years of being a solo parent, Manang Edna managed to raise eight children.

Her first husband died due to sickness leaving her with two children – Orlando and Agnes. Despite her loss, Manang Edna lived with hope to find someone who could be her partner in raising her children.

Then Manong Rafael came into her life. Manang Edna accepted Rafael as her husband believing that life would be better with him by her side. With hopes of having a family full of love, Rafael and Manang Edna had six more children.

Unfortunately, Manang Edna’s dream of a loving and caring husband did not come true. She said, the man who has promised her good life never exerted effort to work for their living. She decided to leave Rafael taking with her their six children.

To support her family, Manang Edna started selling hotcakes, sweetened camote, and ice candy outside the high school campus in the area. On weekends, she takes care of the laundry for her neighbors. During summer, selling halo-halo in the streets of La Paz makes her busy.

To further support her family’s growing needs, she extended work during night time, especially during wakes. As observed by the residents, Manang Edna has always been present during wakes not only to extend her condolences but also to sell balut, corn, and nuts.

She said selling food during wakes helped her a lot in supporting her family, especially in supporting the studies of her children. Her second to the last child, Juliet, has just graduated from high school last March while her youngest, Angela, is an incoming junior in high school.

Despite poverty and hardships, Manang Edna kept praying for the health of her children as they are her inspiration in life. She also never gets tired of working hard because of her simple dream of letting her children finish their education.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development is one of the blessings that makes her dream alive.

Although Manang Edna is usually preoccupied with the things that she does for a living, she was still chosen as a parent leader in their community. According to her members, she was chosen because of her kindness, activeness, and patience.

La Paz is among the 14 municipalities of Abra where 4Ps is implemented. It belongs to the set 1 areas, which started in 2008.

This year, the beneficiaries for set 1 will be graduating from the program, and Manang Edna is one of them.

To sustain and expand the socio-economic benefits of the 4Ps, the Sustainable Livelihood Program of the DSWD intervenes to provide capacity-building and technical assistance on basic business management or employment for the graduating beneficiaries. After the orientation, assessment, and profiling, Manang Edna was among those who had the opportunity to have their own business.

Being an entrepreneur by heart, Manang Edna’s business proposal was to sell snacks. This was eventually approved and was awarded P2,000 for a level 1 capital last February. She said the amount is already added to the capital of the snacks, which she sells outside the school premises during school days. She also expressed her excitement about the school year that has just started because this will mean a bigger opportunity for her to sell her products, and eventually earn for her children.

Being an active member of the community, Manang Edna participated in the activities of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services Project in Poblacion. The project started in La Paz in 2012. La Paz is one of the six randomly selected municipalities in the Cordillera that started its first Kalahi-CIDSS cycle in February.

As the project entails the involvement of the community in its implementation, Manang Edna became a part of the ad hoc committee formed during the social preparation stage. She was voted by the community to become a part of the participatory situational analysis (PSA).

Being part of the PSA volunteers team, Manang Edna said she was enlightened with the real situation of her community.

Manang Edna is one ordinary woman with an extraordinary strength, a woman who, instead of giving up, works harder for her children each day.

With these, she is happy that blessings indeed overflow in times of need. She is challenged to persevere more and succeed as good things come. With the three programs of the DSWD in her municipality, her hope for a better life is now within her and her children’s reach.

A daughter’s thoughts on Father’s Day

When my family was once at its lowest, I thought, “What if my father was a lawyer, a doctor, or a businessman? Would my family be experiencing the same thing? Would we experience this lash of poverty that we have been struggling to get rid of, or would we taste the savor of convenience that we have been deprived of?”

That was in the past. If I were to answer these questions today, I would say that the way my parents raised me was the best.

The importance of mental and spiritual growth was instilled in me because of the values my father taught me – to lean on God’s words and not on mine, to be knowledgeable on what is happening around me, on what is new; to act my part as a member of society; to do what is just even if others are not, and to always respect other people so I would earn the same from them.

My father is a farmer. His partner in his humble work is the carabao. This is the reality that I came to accept and appreciate now that I am a grown-up. But back when I was in high school, I didn’t like my life specifically the life that I had to live because my father is a farmer. I had to go to the farm during planting and harvest season. I had to step in mud and suffer from itching because of the palay.

I had to be exposed to the sun for hours and be scolded by my father in a way that even our neighbors could hear it because I cut the palay stalks too short or too long. This was the life I despised and I blamed my father for it. I thought maybe if he is not a farmer then I wouldn’t have to experience these things.

I now realize why my father did it. Now I understand why he brought us to the farm and made us do the things that he also did. It is for us to experience the difficulty of farming and for us to appreciate how easy it is to be in school, sitting down and listening to the teacher. It is to make us realize that we have only two choices – farming or studying. He made us choose the latter. This is how good our father is. He taught us indirectly. This is how he is different from other fathers in our place. He emphasized on the importance of education to us, his children.

My father may not be the best father in the world but he would always be the best for me. His pocket may not be full but his heart is. My father is not perfect. He also has flaws like any other person but those flaws will not lessen my love for him.

Happy Father’s Day papa!