For Edgar Cadalin, raising six children is never easy. Aside from the fact that he has to provide them with their basic needs, he also had to earn enough to support their education. But how can he send them to school when their only source of income was their small sari-sari store.

“Mahirap talaga noon. Kailangan pagkasyahin ang kita namin mula sa maliit na tindahan para sa anim naming mga anak.” (It was very difficult as we had to budget our income from our small store just to support our 6 children.) Edgar grieves.

With the meager revenue from his home-based sari-sari store, Edgar and his wife decided to join the Sustainable Livelihood Program of the DSWD in 2012. Edgar shared that SLP doesn’t only provide capital seed fund, but it also conducts social preparation activities such as livelihood trainings and seminars on entrepreneur to ensure that the business being pursued by the beneficiaries will be sustained.

“Masaya talaga kami na kaming mga pantawid beneficiaries nabigyan ng tulong ng SLP para kumita. Tapos yung capital na binibigay nila wala pang interes so malaki talaga ang ipon, tapos may training pa silang binibigay.” (We are very glad that SLP helped us earn. Especially that the money they lend has no interest so you can really save big, aside from that they also conduct training.)

Edgar brags the biggest lesson that he learned from SLP is the formula Earning-Savings= Expenses. Right now Edgar has not just expanded his sari-sari store, he is also engaged in the buy and sell business for corn. Out of his increasing income, he was able to build a concrete house and acquired a motorcycle used for public transportation or habal-habal from which he earns at least Php 200.00 per day.  Aside from this, he now owns half hectare of rice field and 1 hectare of corn land.

“Salamat sa SLP at binago nila ang buhay namin, lalo na ang kinabukasan ng mga anak namin. Ngayon marami nang pagkukuhanan para sa pagkain, pang-eskwela at kahit sa mga extra, kayang-kaya na naming.” (Thank you to SLP because they changed our lives, especially the future of our children. Unlike before, we now have multiple streams of income for our food, for education and even for extra expenses.) Edgar proudly shares. ###