Lola starts food business using cash found in dumpsite

Growing  toiling with her mom in the garbage dumps to  look for plastics to sell, Editha Bonghanoy wanted only one thing—to rise above  the pit of poverty.
Was it destiny or an act of God when she found one morning at the dumpsite  a white envelope containing P600 cash?

“I was with my grandchildren then and we went to the dumpsite early so that we can gather more plastics that we can sell and then we can buy rice for that day,” Bonghanoy said.

Bonghanoy said  she was happy to find the money and was convinced it was  God’s way of giving her a chance to start a business to help her family.

“I said to myself that I will not waste that chance,” she said, “so I used the money to buy chicken neck and feet to start a small business selling ‘krispy.’” Her product, krispy, are deep-fried chicken neck and feet.

Bonghanoy opened the business  early this year and has been earning a profit of P100 every day, which she uses to buy food and send her grandchildren to school.

Bonghanoy has three grandchildren. Two are attending school in Mandaue City.

Every day, Bonghanoy still wakes up early to look for plastics to sell in the  dumpsite.

But she goes home before noon   to cook “krispy” which she sells just outside her home in barangay Umapad, Mandaue City.

“I sell them at affordable prices so that my neighbors here will buy them and I can sell everything before the day ends because I don’t have a fridge to store my stocks.”

Bonghanoy buys the ingredients in the evening and marinates them in vinegar, soy sauce and spices overnight.

According to Bonghanoy, she is happy with the outcome of her investment and hopes to earn more.

“I’d also like to sell other food here so that I can earn more and save more,” she said.

“Slowly that way I know I will be able to send my grandchildren to school and give them something my mother was never able to give me and I was unable to give to my daughter, their mother.”

Bonghanoy said she doesn’t want her grandchildren to grow up  to work in the dump all their lives.

“That money we found was not given to me for no reason. I think the reason should be so that I can put an end to this lifestyle and give my grandchildren a chance at a better life.”

Bonghanoy hopes that someday, through her small business, she can stop going to the dumpsites.

“In the future, I want to own my own food store where I sell more food for people,” she said.

“Perhaps I could move to  a place where there are more people so that I can sell more.”

After 45 years, Bonghanoy said that she felt renewed.

“I feel more hopeful now and I feel that nothing is impossible if you just put your heart to something. In my case I got a little help from God and I know that everyone gets that chance and it’s up to you how you make that change happen.”

Bonghanoy is one of the 23 contestants of the Search for WINNERS or Women In Need, Now Entrepreneurs and Rolemodels initiated by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry as part of their annual Mandaue Business Month.

According to committee chairperson Carmel de Pio Salvador, they selected 23 women with inspiring stories to help other women in the community to become entrepreneurs and improve their lives.

“We see a lot of women who just stay at home and just sort of gave up,” Salvador said.

“We had the 23 contestants as the rolemodels for them. If these women did it, why can’t they?”