By Niña Bea Cadorna
SKETCH Bags, a social enterprise by Business Administration seniors of Xavier University for the benefit of the Xavier Ecoville community, was awarded a Php100,000 seed grant at the British Council’s I am a Changemaker camp in Tagbilaran City, Bohol on October 25.
“It was a great experience. It was overwhelming,” said Zuein Guantero, the general manager of the SKETCH bags .
With this year’s theme “Resiliency, Reconstruction and Recovery,” the I am a Changemaker camp gathered young social entrepreneurs throughout the Philippines in a 7-day ideation camp to widen their knowledge in social entrepreneurship through seminars, trainings and site visits.
The five best social enterprises were then bestowed with funding to be used for either the improvement or establishment of their respective social enterprise.
Ecoville mothers at the frontline
“We will use the money to provide more skills trainings, production equipment and financial literacy trainings for the sewing enterprise of Xavier Ecoville. These will hopefully enhance the quality of the bags,” Guantero answered when asked about their plans on the grant.
SKETCH aims to provide livelihood opportunities for the families affected by Typhoon Sendong in December 2011. They tapped a group of 30 mothers from the XE community for the production of the recyclable bags. These women have been paid for each bag that they produce. Thus, more bags would mean more income for them.
“We chose to help Xavier Ecoville community because, like the Ecoville residents, two of our group mates are also Sendong survivors. The Xavier Ecoville community is also close to our hearts,” said Anne Sebastian, the partner of Guantero in the camp.
XE is a resettlement community for the Tropical Storm Sendong survivors located at Barangay Lumbia, located 60 kilometers away from the city proper.
“We wanted to help the society and the community,” Guantero added.
They also admitted that they drew their inspiration from Arsenio Sebastian, Ann’s grandfather who takes his active involvement as the livelihood development consultant of the Xavier Ecoville Project.
Hope for a bigger market
The Changemaker camp was initiated by the British Council, an international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relation, in partnership with the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), a staunch supporter of social entrepreneurship.
SKETCH bags started as a feasibility study requirement for their course. The bags were made from katsa cloth. They were then chosen by School of Business and Management to represent XU in the camp.
Currently, SKETCH bags has already produced and marketed a total of 47O bags. They are targeting to sell 900 bags by the end of this year. They will be distributing the bags to various organizations and companies.
They are hoping that through their efforts the sewing enterprise will be sustained and there will be a bigger market for the bags.
The other members of the SKETCH bags feasibility study group who were not able to join the camp due to the limited number of participants were Raymond Sabio, Lichelle Salgados, Ted Povadora, Ian Son and Mark Amper.
Other social enterprises from XU were Knots and Woods, another FS group who produced shoes made out of abaca fiber, and ROOFosition of the XEP which was aimed at developing a technology for urban gardening and maximizing the spaces on the roofs.