Micro-entrepreneur with a big heart

For someone who is blessed with so much, Matilde “Ging-Ging” Castillo is giving away just as much.

The mother of  eight  looks for ways to help women and youths in the community, where she runs a restaurant beside her home in  barangay Logon, Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan town, northern Cebu.

She set up a reading center for  youths, tapping donations from other Malapascua residents.

She also recruits elderly neighbors in need of financial assistance usually during Malapascua Island’s peak season—summer—and asks them to sweep  the roads and shores.

Whenever Castillo, a barangay councilor,  receives medicine from her sister in Canada, she donates them to those in need. A blood pressure kit no longer used by one of her children in school is given away without hesitation.

Castillo said she finds joy in helping  neighbors. She said seeing their happy faces gives her pleasure.

“Kinahanglan ta magtinabangay, labi na karon nga usa na ka tourism destination ang Malapascua Island (We need to help each other, especially now that Malapascua Island is a tourism destination),” she said.

Malapascua Island  in northern Cebu is a byword among divers and backpack travelers from several countries, who discovered the quiet, white-sand island a decade ago and spread the word.

Castillo said her desire to serve the community was fueled when the Sto. Niño, patron of Cebu, showed her a miracle—the cape of the Sto. Niño image she bought turned from red to green on the day she bought it.

She used to work as a part-time cleaning woman in a Malapascua resort in 1994 where she met Wolfgang Lanik.

He rented her mother’s lot and encouraged her to set up an eatery that features Filipino dishes, which foreigners crave. She opened a small carenderia, which now employs 22 workers.

Last year, when the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) introduced its financial opportunities for entrepreneurship to residents of barangay Logon, Castillo and nine other women formed the Malapascua Women Livelihood Association (MWLA) and availed of loans from RAFI micro-finance.

She applied for a P5,000 loan to improve her restaurant, Ging-Ging’s Eatery. She paid back the loan  in three months.

Castillo was elected chairperson of MWLA and has looked for ways to strengthen it, such as providing members with livelihood opportunities. Most members are wives of fishermen.

“Kasagaran sa nag-loan sa RAFI micro-finance nag-abli og tindahan o mopalit og mga lotion para massage services sa mga mobisita diri aron makatabang sa ilahang mga bana. Sa pagkakaron, nagplano pa mi kon unsaon makahalin og lain nga paagi isip usa ka grupo (Many of us  who applied for loans with RAFI micro-finance opened a store or buy lotion to offer massage services for  visitors who  come here. For now, we are still planning on how we can earn as an association),” she said.

The group set up their own center so they could have a decent area for meetings.  Her husband helped build it.

From 10 members, the coop  today has more than 80 members with more still ready to sign up, said Castillo, who is on her second term as barangay councilor.

“Isip usa ka gi-elect nga leader, dili ko mahadlok mo-istorya kon unsa ang naa sa akong utok nga para nako sakto didto sa among kapitan ug sa konseho tungod kabalo ko nga makaayo ni sa among barangay (As an elected leader, I am not afraid to speak out about what I think is right to the barangay captain and council because I know this will be for the benefit of the barangay),” Castillo said.

One of her projects was to set up trash holders made of rice sacks.  They are hung on  sturdy wooden frames with labels  around the barangay.

After observing reading facilities in mainland Daanbantayan, she duplicated this in barangay Logo.  She asked her sister, a teacher, to allow the use of a  small lot to build a reading center and  pooled P10,000 worth of resources from individuals and companies in Malapascua.

The reading center, built right beside the women’s cooperative,  aims to promote love for reading and to provide children with a place to study.

One of her most satisfying projects  involved elderly citizens.Ten men and women were asked to sweep  barangay roads and beach shores at least once a month to keep surroundings clean, especially during summer when tourists arrive. For this simple task, each elder was given P100.

“Malipay kaayo sila nga makahibalo nga sa ilahang edad makatabang pa sila sa barangay. Adunay uban mo-volunteer na og limpyo. Kini dako kaayo og kalipay nahatag naku (They are happy to know that at their age they can  still help the barangay. Others now volunteer to help clean. This gives me great joy),” she said.

Her businesses  now include a scuba-diving center and a two-room lodging house, but Castillo still looks for new ways to  improve her community. /Nancy Cudis/Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.