The gift of self

I never fully valued the power of hope until I traveled in the early morning for three hours to Lucena, Quezon. There I met and heard the stories of Nanay Edith Miranda and Nanay Lelia Macaraan. They are medium-scale sari-sari store owners who have entered into a partnership with Hapinoy, a business development service. On the surface, Hapinoy is a company managed by Atenean Management Engineering graduates Bam Aquino and Mark Ruiz with Microfinance institutions to lend money to help their stores grow faster. At the same time, they have tied up with manufacturing companies like Unilever, Colgate Palmolive and URC to offer better prices to theses nanays who are 2,000 in number. Lastly, Hapinoy offers these nanays training in accounting and spruces up their stores with the vibrantly colored Hapinoy signs featuring a smiling mascot boy that you cannot miss as you drive through rough roads of the province.

Yet, as much as these things are laudable, I discovered that lending P150,000, installing high tech point of sale (POS) systems in their stores, or naming them micro-entrepreneurs is just the tip of the nipa hut: The true gift Hapinoy gives its partners is the present of self worth and that is something truly priceless.

Unwrapping Yourself

As the rondalla music coming from 41-year-old Nanay Edith’s radio immersed my ears in the rural atmosphere, she recounted that Hapinoy chose her as a pilot store because of her good credit with CARD, or the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, which microfinanced her store after it burned down in 2001. Last year, Bam Aquino, whom she jokes to her husband is her new boyfriend, came with his Hapinoy team to conduct seminars to build her sari-sari business which usde to earn P15,000 a day and now brings in P30,000 a day.

At first, she says it was hard to open up during these seminars because of her shyness. However, she took to heart the advice about personality development and found it worthwhile. She adds that she was very wary of her customers because she would always think that they would ask for utang. When she changed this perspective and became prudent abouuuuut how to say no to people asking for money, Edith soon found herself chatting and building relationships with her neighbors. She even says that her old self wouldn’t dare talk to local reporters like me. This is why her husband Mario and kids Mark Ace and Karylle are always astonished by her stories and always reply, “Mom, is that really you?”

Thus, wrapped under Nanay Edith’s simple life was a gift just waiting to be opened and shared — and the lesson that it is normal for people to love their community and be given back love in return. Today, she is expecting her customers to visit her during Christmas and she will spend her noche buena eating ice cream and cake with her family. Amazingly, Nanay Edith is now anxious to speak and give her own seminar before new Hapinoy Nanays.

Sharing Your Blessings

As I traveled south to a town an hour away from Edith’s Candelaria, I met her new best friend Lelia Macaraan. If Nanay Edith was a gift waiting to be opened, Nanay Lelia was a feast of stories to be shared because she couldn’t stop talking like a little child. Her memory was crystal clear; she even remembered how insecure she was when she saw Nanay Edith under the big tree waiting for the first Hapinoy seminar to start. She joyfully recounts that Nanay Edith soon became her friend because they had the same answers on their personality tests. Her openness — which even beats some celeb personalities I have interviewed in the past — makes it difficult to believe that she was ever lacking in confidence.

As I watched Hapinoy Partnerships head TJ Agulto ask what was the virtue that allowed them to go out and convince other nanays to attend a seminar, I could see in Nanay Lelia’s eyes that she wasn’t one to quit either; she kept searching for the word for about 10 minutes until she smiled brightly and said,,, “Trust!” Then she shifted her attention to me and chatted away about how she was able to talk to 1,000 people at World Trade Center because TJ believed in her. She did really well and came back with ice cream and cake for her kids — an extraordinary occasion because her family only eats these sweets five times in a year. She says that her electrical engineer husband who works in Africa is most surprised by the changes because when he calls, everyone is out of the house and working on their own projects.

This Christmas Day, Lelia plans to spend quality time with her kids. This means talking about things that only her family can enjoy and share. Her kids were amazed this year when she declared that they could choose both branded tops and bottoms like Lee jeans for their gifts, instead of the usual clothes from the market. Her son even asked, “Mom, nanalo ka ba ng lotto?” And, as she emotionally retells the story, you can see that Nanay Lelia actually did because she is buying these things not simply in a materialistic splurge but because she has found her own self worth. As she aptly put it, “I am sharing my blessings with the other nanays and my kids because I feel like a winner!”

Make Others Feel Worthy

TJ Agulto tells us Hapinoy learned over the course of a year that technical skill wasn’t what these nanays needed first, but self-development. That’s because these nanays lacked the discipline for accounting until they believed they could do it. Hapinoy seminar teacher Russ Juson further explains that beliefs about self and others are important because they are the root of our actions and results. Thus, the belief-action-result pattern is the backbone of the various sessions for nanays.

The outcome is nanays and not tinderas because tinderas or palengkeras don’t nurture families and barangays. It is nanays that do. With this reality in mind, Hapinoy elevated the self worth of these women and, for me, revealed another way to be Christ-like this Christmas. It was because Christ was born, died and rose that our “soul feel its worth,” as the song O Holy Night goes. Hence, may our loved ones feel this Christmas that every second we spend with them is worth it to the point that “their weary souls rejoice!”

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Learn more about Hapinoy, its partners, and how to help at http://hapinoy.com.

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Send me worthy gifts at readnow@supreme.ph and http://readnow.tumblr.com.