Over 1K Samar store owners complete training

TACLOBAN CITY, Jan. 24  -- More than 1,000 small community store owners in Samar Island completed a series of seminars meant to help grow their business and establish a resilient supply chain after destructive calamities.

In a caravan held Tuesday at the City Convention Center here, women entrepreneurs from three Samar provinces joined the event designed to encourage linkages among key players to support the establishment of resilient supply chain.

Microventures Foundation Inc. Executive Director Ann Juliet Go said when super typhoon Yolanda struck the region, many small community shops known as “sari-sari” stores shutdown and owners didn’t know where to go to replenish their stocks.

Included in the seven-month training is to map out plans on where to source out supplies after extreme weather events.

“The training aims to equip and empower micro-entrepreneurs as they move forward in creating resilient and sustainable businesses to further improve their economic well-being,” Go said.

Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines John Holmes said their government contributed about PHP800 million for the five-year project in Yolanda-hit communities.

“We have not just provided humanitarian assistance, but also long-term recovery projects. We developed women micro-entrepreneurs to manage their business and help them recover quickly. It’s so important to re-establish the economy in affected areas not just through the help of responders, but by getting small businesses back up and running,” Holmes told reporters.

The training is part of the Bagong Araw (New Day) Philippines project, which seeks to help over 1,600 sari-sari store owners in Yolanda-hit Leyte and Samar provinces through capacity building, linkage to additional capital, and access to micro-insurance products.

It is also in partnership with Hapinoy, a social enterprise that has been engaging more than 11,000 small store owners in Luzon and Visayas.

The initiative is also backed by Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada, Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Inc., and the Micro-Insurance MBA Association of the Philippines. (SQM/PNA)