On October 5, 2019, I was assigned to the GK Bulalakanan chapter for my BINHI iimmersion. We were given the objective of spending time with the family assigned to us, to get to know them personally and occupationally. The Bulaklakan chapter is located in Quezon City and upon first glance the community looked very organized and simple. According to one of the residents, this Gawad Kalinga chapter is called Bulaklakan because of the flowers growing around the area as well as what blossoming into a flower symbolizes for their community. The overall community is self-sustainable through their different stalls of sari-sari stores, agricultural gardens, and laundry shops. The houses were lined up in a grid format children were playing and running along the walkways, while residents all around were singing charaokee in different rooms.
The specific family I was assigned to was the Teodosio family. The family consisted of 7 people, Judith Teodosio(Mother), Mr Tirso Teodosio(Father), Cyrus(Son), Babygirl(Daughter), Anne(Daughter), Mira(Daughter), and Dandan(Daughter). After meeting the family they gave us background of how they lived in numerous informal areas, this often led to the destruction of their home on multiple occasions. Since their home would constantly be destroyed they were forced to spend their finances on the home, instead of spending it for education or food. In 2015 the family sought help from GK Bulaklakan who was able to give them a stable source of income in order to support the children even though the family had a very low source of income.
Nowadays the Teodosio’s both husband and wife have a stall in a food market near GK Bulaklakan. At the stall they sell various vegetables some of which include petsay, eggplant, tomatoes, and spinach. All products that are sold come from their own garden in which Judith plants and grows herself. The stall itself daily earns around PHP1000 in revenue, that they are able to spend on any necessities for the family such as food. Not only do they have a stall, but they also buy starch and repackage the starch into small plastic that they are able to sell for 5 pesos each. During the immersion, we were able to make 40 of these small batches of starch which in turn would generate 500 pesos if all were sold.
It could be said the family is undertaking a business of agricultural and primary goods. The family sees these products as necessities for the community enar them thus giving them a never ending demand for their product. Since their products are produced by them, they are also able to price the product at lower prices than any supermarket competitors. The main target market that the Teodosio family caters to would be the community around the area of GK Bulaklakan. Though this is a small specific market, they may have the potential to grow the market to other areas around the city, as food is a necessity to all. The one major problem with the business is that the family does not have the initial capital available in order to not only sustain but grow their business. Instead the family needs to use all revenue from their business in order to support the family’s necessities.
My visit to the local community can be describe as me going to a different field wherein the capital that I possess such as my English-speaking ability holds less value and thus I experience some dissonance in terms of how I socialize with the people in the area. However, I also can admit that my habitus which can be describe as upper-middle class lends itself to me developing a completely different outlook towards life as compared to the habitus of these people living in Gawad Kalinga as their habitus values hardwork and grit much more than if the field was more of an urban one. Thus, my upbringing and the upbringing of these people is what differentiated our outlooks towards life and paved the way for our current perspectives. It is simply my job to accept them for who they are as injustice is never the way to go when dealing with people from different fields and different amounts and values of capital.
The experience of meeting the Teodosio family was truly eye opening. It makes me realize that the term entrepreneur can have many different meanings, as clearly the Teodosio family are entrepreneurs in their own right. Though they may not be of the highest class of entrepreneurs they are still considered to be entrepreneurs as they make money in order to support their family. After going through this immersion, I am able to have a better sense of money as i learned that transactions and decisions within the business of entrepreneurs are essential in supporting and providing for their family, this at the end of the day is the goal of life. To conclude the BINHI immersion has been a humbling experience, after seeing those who are clearly less fortunate than I it has made me realize some of the true realities of life here in the Philippines and the meaning of hard work and dedication.
Robbie's SocSc 11 Blog 