How Manilyn Blessed Her Community, One Pig at a Time
Manilyn and her husband dreamed of building a house for their four young children, but it just didn’t seem possible. Her husband was a fisherman, like many in the island nation of the Philippines. Despite his best efforts—rising before dawn and returning home after dusk, tired and smelling of fish—they were hardly making enough money to support their most basic needs. Things became increasingly dire during the pandemic, when they saw a reduction in both the volume of his fish as well as the marketplace price.
Manilyn knew she had to do something if she was going to provide a better future for her children.
Joining the PW Network
In 2022, Manilyn connected with a local partner of Partners Worldwide, Convoy of Hope, where she took the PW microenterprise training. During this training, she learned the essentials of being a businesswoman, including how to record her expenses and income and to reinvest her earnings back into her business.
Armed with a new set of skills, Manilyn received a grant from Convoy of Hope, a grant not in the form of cash, but in pigs. Through this start-up capital, she was able to start her own business raising hogs.
Hard Work Paid Off
“Focus, focus, focus.” Manilyn valued these words from the PW training, repeating them often to herself. A silent, diligent worker, Manilyn faithfully stewarded what God had blessed her with so that she might in turn bless her family and community.
Over time, her hard work paid off. Through profits from her business, Manilyn was able to provide additional income for her family, income which enabled them to build a home.
Enduring Challenges through Faith
Manilyn faced a new challenge in late 2023. This time it wasn’t COVID-19, but rather ASF: the African Swine Fever. While not a threat to human health, the highly-contagious ASF is deadly to pigs, putting Manilyn’s income—and the future of her family—at risk. However, Manilyn refused to let this dampen her spirit. She took measures to ensure her pigs wouldn’t be infected, isolating them and monitoring them for exposure.
Despite these challenges, Manilyn is filled with faithfulness in her calling as an entrepreneur. She knows, like so many others, that business can be a holy calling, a way to demonstrate God’s love to others. Now, she has the tools she needs to serve as a beacon of hope and light for those in her community and provide a path out of poverty for her family. In the future, Manilyn hopes to learn skills in meat processing so that she can add further value to her product.
March 7, 2024