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Women in Dayap learn to make soap

It’s the dry season in the Philippines in April and May, so it has been hard to keep the vegetable plots watered. Therefore those who have been taking part in our veg@table programme in Dayap are instead learning how to make liquid dishwashing soap from our livelihood trainer Jonatan.

Dayap is the resettlement village for people in Manila who lost their homes during Typhoon Ondoy in 2009. Most of the men still work in Manila in the week and come home only at the weekends. Hence it is the women who are around most of the time.

The two women in the accompanying photographs are already selling their soap. Goducate helped them with a loan of PHP 180 ($4) as start-up capital, which they will repay when they have sold all their products.

Jonatan teaching soapmaking
The first two candidates
The other learners
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Veg@table project gathers pace in Dayap

Grace pulling out her flowering plants to make way for beans

It takes only a spark to get a fire going. After seeing Nanay Anita’s vegetable plants in her frontyard starting to bear fruit, her neighbours want to turn their frontyards into vegetable patches too. One neighbour, Grace, a mother of 2, decided to pull out her flowering plants to grow beans instead. So far 14 families in Dayap have joined the project.

Grace pulling out her flowering plants to make way for beans
Grace pulling out her flowering plants to make way for beans

Jordan (left), the farm manager, with a father pleased with his tomato seedlings that have sprouted
Children planting seeds

The manager of our model farm, who is helping the community there to plant vegetables, recalls how the children used to have little better to do than throw stones at passersby, himself included. Now they want to help with the planting.

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First fruit in Dayap

The lady who was our pioneer in Goducate’s backyard/frontyard veg@table farming project is already seeing the rewards of her labour. Towards the end of November, the manager of our model farm went to Dayap to help Nanayanita turn her frontyard into a vegetable patch. Dayap is the village where victims of 2009 Typhoon Ondoy’s damage in Manila were resettled.


Now she is admiring her long beans and tomatoes.