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| Nanay Andresa watches as fish port workers weigh sashimi-grade tuna ready for packing for export to the US. |
Nanay Andresa Javines, pioneer community partner of CCT's General Santos City branch was recently selected as one of the winners in the 2011 Citi Micro entrepreneur of the Year (MOTY) Awards Program. (For more information on the program please click on http://cctgeneralnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/gensan-nanay-is-citi-micro-entrepreneur.html)
When she was interviewed and photographed for nomination to the awards program, Nanay Andresa said she would pray hard to be a winner. She needs the money for medical treatment for her husband who has a heart condition. Her faith has been rewarded! Here is the original write-up submitted to Citi MOTY about her:
Nanay Andresa Javines has come a long way. She belonged to a brood of 15 children and never graduated from grade school because of her big family's poverty. Having little education (and not being able to speak Tagalog or English) however was not a hindrance for her becoming successful in business. After several years of working at the fish port in General Santos City, she decided to become a supplier of material used to pack tuna for export.
She buys Styrofoam boards, polythelene rolls, and corrugated boxes and sells them in pre-cut, ready-to-use, slitted form. She also makes and sells gel ice (ice made from a cooked solution of cornstarch, salt and water) that is placed inside the cavity of a tuna after it has been gilled and gutted.
She has two major clients who are exporters of sashimi-grade tuna to Canada, the US, and Japan.
On the side, Nanay Andresa purchases tuna trimmings – the head, tail, and entrails – for sale to the local market.
Over the years she and her husband have managed to send their children to school. Two of the children have graduated with degrees in accounting and management, and another took computer science. A hearing-impaired son is enrolled in a special education school, and another child is still in high school. She has been able to renovate her house, once made of light material, into a concrete bungalow. She has also purchased three motorcycles, two of which are already fully paid for.
Her dream is to be able to have a sidecar made for one of her motorcycles. This will serve as her delivery vehicle; for now she rents her sister's Kia Pride for deliveries. However, she says, the vehicle is not always available.
Nanay Andresa's motivation for working is her children. She has built a five-unit apartment building that she will be able to rent out as soon as water connections are installed. She says this is what she intends to leave behind for the children. She says that when it is time for her to leave this life she will leave peacefully, with the assurance that her children's needs have been provided for.
The following family members/ neighbors are paid helpers in Nanay Andresa's packing material business:
· Leslie Generalao
· Joy Saludar
· Ellen Saavedra
· Junior Saavedra
The following are neighbors who help cook and make gel ice:
· Baby Magallanes
· Saralin Sevilla
· Josefa Maceda
