A GROUP of senior citizens in a populous barangay in Quezon City turns solid-waste materials into handicrafts it sells.
These senior citizens are still productive, innovative and seeking to earn at retirement age.
Discarded papers are made into wristband beads and earring pendants, said Chit Lacson, president of Barangay Holy Spirit senior citizens federation, in a recent interview.
The products do not look like paper in their finished state.
Other products from solid waste include bags, placemats and baskets made of old telephone directory, and ornaments, like flowers, for home and office use, Lopez said.
The seniors also turn discarded cloth into rugs, Lacson said.
A mini bazaar is scheduled to run for a number of days at the barangay hall this May to showcase and sell the handicrafts, said Ricardo Lopez, head of the barangay’s Office for Senior Citizen Affairs.
This is an opportunity for the seniors to introduce their products to the public and generate income for both the chapters and themselves, he said.
The prices of their products range from P10 to P35, depending on size and time spent on producing them, Lopez said.
In March over 20 chapter leaders of seniors in Barangay Holy Spirit underwent a three-day livelihood trainers’ workshop at Holy Spirit’s livelihood training center, Lopez said.
The workshops included handicraft-making, cooking kakanin and food processing, Lacson said.
The trained chapter leaders will, in turn, train their members in the different areas of Holy Spirit, she added.
Holy Spirit has 14 senior citizen chapters with over 3,000 members.
Aside from handicraft-making, the chapter leaders were trained on urban container gardening, converting solid waste, like discarded canisters, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, tin cans and plastic sacks, to pots for growing organic vegetables, Lacson said.
They were trained by barangay agriculturist David V. Balillia, who is in charge of the multiawarded Gulayan at Bulaklakan sa Barangay Holy Spirit, which won in January the top award in the category of local government units for The Outstanding Farmers of the Philippines of 2014.
Composting, which is environment-friendly, is one of the components of the training on urban container gardening, Lacson said.
Vegetables, like pechay, eggplants beans, spinach and tomato, even strawberry, can be grown organically in Metro Manila in discarded containers, with the technology of the Gulayan at Bulaklakan, Balillia said.
Said plants have been grown with good yield at the Gulayan and Bulaklakan, he added.
The seniors were told by Barangay Chairman Felicito A. Valmocina that they can use their share in the annual 1-percent internal revenue allotment to sustain this livelihood program, she added.
The handicraft and container gardening are offshoots of Barangay Holy Spirit’s solid-waste management program, Valmocina said.
Image credits: Oliver Samson