Group helps ‘invisible’ Filipinos find livelihood

By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net
YOU often see crocheted bags made of threads and yarns. But have you seen one using plastic?
The Invisible Institute, a non-government organization (NGO), is now using plastics as material for their homegrown crocheted bags.
“As we all know, we have many poor women who really need more income generating activities because they have so many people depending on them. What we’ve done is to take those people whom I call ‘invisible’ or ‘unseen’ and put them together with invisible waste, which I consider factory waste,” Invisible Institute founder and artist Ann Wizer said.
The group uses “clean trash and garbage bags” as materials to teach poor women to crochet.
“It’s a very simple skill. And we’re also teaching any men who are willing,” said Wizer.
Crochet is a French term that literally means “hook.” It describes a “series of interlocking loops onto a chain using a slender rod with a hook at the end,” according to CrochetDoilies website.
Wizer began the organization in collaboration with another non-government organization called Gems Heart, which gathered women in Malibay, Pasay in October to train every Tuesday afternoon.
“In this project, I have given very little design advice because I was trying to see what they would come up with themselves first,” said Wizer.
Virgie Buencochillo and Rene Sison, two of the participants in the workshop, related how the program changed the way they eventually see plastic.
Buencochillo, for her part, said she now saves plastic bags from groceries and uses them as materials for crocheted bag. She also uses empty containers as another material.
Sison admitted plastics turned into bags can generate extra income.
“Sometimes, our budget is insufficient since I still have kids who are studying. That’s why I use the money that I get [from this new livelihood] when we’re short of budget,” Sison added.
So far, Sison has created bags out of scrap materials, such as rejected syringe, plastics, excess carpet. He said he has earned about P 4,000. Buencochillo has also finished some bags which has earned her a total of P 1,950.
Sison said crocheted plastic bags are very cheap to make. You don’t need a lot of capital since the materials are junk. Rejected and unused syringes, for instance, cost less than P 100.
“It’s a self-empowering skill,” added Wizer who admitted that the organization still needs funding to hire more experts and staff.
“The next step for the Invisible Institute is to get some design expertise. I love to see more designers and artists involved. We also need funding because we have to make this a real, legal entity and a real cooperative and later run by Filipinos so that they can feel the benefits,” explained Wizer.

A Japinoy’s journey home

By Lella Santiago

INQUIRER.net and PROUDLY FILIPINA.com

Her name was Elsa. She was a showgirl. Or to be more precise, she was a Filipina entertainer in Japan. A Japayuki.

His name was Reizo. He was a patron at the bar where she worked. He was a Yakuza. He fell in love with her. Alone and far from home, Elsa succumbed to his persistent wooing. The liaison produced a son they named Kenji.

Trouble began when Elsa ended their relationship. The violent man that he was, he threatened to kill her. Afraid for her life and not wanting to leave her son behind, Elsa went into hiding. Life on the run became unbearable. There were times she had to scavenge for food. She decided to bring Kenji to the Philippines.

Because of the trouble she was in, Elsa failed to get a Japanese birth certificate for Kenji. The only record of his birth was with the hospital where he was born. The Philippine Consulate in Tokyo issued an affidavit of birth based on hospital records. With this document, Elsa was able to bring her infant son home.

Back home, Elsa realized the money she saved will not sustain them for long. With a heavy heart, she decided to return to Japan. Kenji was left in the care of her mother and brother.

In Japan, she met Toshiro, a cab driver. He was a good man and this time, Elsa reciprocated the love he offered. They lived together and eventually had a daughter. Life became better for Elsa but it was not complete. She missed her son.

For years, Elsa tried to bring Kenji to Japan. But without a Japanese birth certificate, he couldn’t get a Japanese passport. When Kenji was 7 years old, Elsa and her new family went back to the Philippines. Toshiro wanted to adopt Kenji to facilitate his return. Elsa and Toshiro even got married in the Philippines to enable him to adopt Kenji legally. But legal technicalities prevented the adoption. In cases of foreign adoption, the two countries involved have to make a case study. This proved to be too difficult to obtain that Elsa and Toshiro returned to Japan without Kenji.

As Kenji turned 16, Elsa thought of consulting a different lawyer. She was advised that Kenji had automatic Philippine citizenship being the son of a Filipina who was unmarried at the time of his birth. This entitles him to get a Philippine passport. The issue of his birth certificate was solved by the lawyer with a request for this document from the National Statistics Office (NSO). As his birth was documented by the Philippine Consulate in Tokyo, it was automatically recorded with the NSO. Armed with a birth certificate, Kenji was able to get a Philippine passport.

With his Philippine passport, Kenji applied for a Japanese visa. This was easily granted because he was born in Japan. Although his Japanese father was not recorded in his birth certificate, it was not critical to prove his parentage. The place of his birth was enough to grant him an entry permit.

Today Kenji is in Tokyo with his mother and her family. To cement Kenji’s place in his new home, Toshiro is still filing for adoption.

The names of the people involved have been changed to protect their identities.

Adding WOW to Your Website

Reprinted from PROUDLY FILIPINA.com

The world is changing at a dizzying pace. There are so many new-fangled things today that a mere quarter of a century ago would have been considered science fiction.
For the Filipina to get ahead, she must know the advancements that she can use to be at the top of her game, whether she is an entrepreneur or employed by a big company. In this age of the internet, having a website can spell the difference between a dynamic enterprise and one with a lackluster performance.

Here are guidelines from Macromedia on how to design an interesting website.

Creating a site is simple. Everyone has access to tools that make authoring HTML pages easy. The trick is no longer getting the page built. It’s getting it built right.

The key to Good Website Design

1. Get to know your audience and design for them
It is a common desire to want your website to look leading-edge. In reality, it might not be the right approach for your target audience. Rather than enhance design style and incorporate new technologies, tailor the usability of the site to your audience’s needs.
Here are some demographic considerations to take into account when designing your site:
• If your customers are all middle aged or older, think about type size. Make sure your text isn’t too small or difficult to read.
• If you have a primarily male audience, you have to think about color-blindness.
• If your audience is younger, maybe you should have less text and more graphics.
• If your audience is likely to spend money easily, put a special offer on the front page of the site.

2. Test your site with inexperienced web users
When you have your site mocked up, test the design and the flow of your navigation with someone who knows nothing about the web. Test early and test often. Fixing things at the beginning of the design process will save you precious time later on.
3. Make the content on your first page rich and explanatory
The first page of your site should address the user needs straight away. Avoid having a company graphic all by itself or an animated logo spinning around. Your CEO may like it, but your user is unlikely to be interested.
Consider doing the following:
• Create a very simple, easy-to-understand navigation system that doesn’t take up too much space.
• Ensure your user has a way to search the site.
• At the top of the first page, add a tag line that summarizes what the user will find in the site.
• Provide a way of contacting the company on the first page. Often people come to the website just to get a phone number or address
• If you are selling directly from the web page, highlight some of the profiled products or services on the front page.
4. Provide contact information on every page.
The web is frequently used nowadays as a big telephone directory so consider putting your contact information on every page to make it easy for you customers to contact you.
5. Set up your navigation system to help users find what they are looking for
Whether comprised of Javascript rollovers, Flash files or text links, a navigation system must be easy to find and simple to understand. If you decide that your navigation and links need to differ visually from the standards, take time early on to test the interface.
6. Provide search options
Search engines are very complex these days and the cost ranges from free services to expensive ones. But whatever the cost, you do want a search engine.
7. Sound and animation
Avoid anything that does not contribute directly to the usability of the site. If you need to create a movie describing how to use a product or to illustrate a technique, ensure that the content will improve the site. The same caution goes for music, whistles and beeps. Unless you are doing an audio tour on-line or teaching a language, avoid this altogether.
8. Provide printer-friendly pages
If your information is really useful, it is likely that users will want to have it printed. Consider setting up a PDF file that opens from a link. This usually makes the printing process so much easier.

Ultimately, creating a website is easy. The challenge is getting it looked at – again and again.

The above guidelines were originally published in the newsletter of Macromedia.