MARCH 2024. Osoleya Mimbantas, 35, joined a cooperative formed in their remote village in Sandab, Butig, Lanao Del Sur- Camp Bushra “to help her community, who are the members of the cooperative”.
She is thankful for the support provided to their cooperative and believes that the trainings conducted to them are useful not only for their organization, but also to their personal life.
Osoleya is a daughter of the late leader of the MILF in Lanao province. Her active role in the community roots from her experience in life being a daughter to a warrior.
She is the President of the Bangsamoro Unified Into Growth (BUTIG) Cooperative in their barangay. Osoleya finished college and currently works as government employee where she earns income to help provide for her own family of three children.
Their cooperative is currently managing and operating a tractor, a farm facility provided by the program relevant to the camps transformation and development.
The facility helps ease the process of farming. The cooperative offers rental service for the tractor for farmers from neighboring villages.
The group has also initiated for an initial capital from their own pockets that they use to buy and sell sacks of rice, payable for its members for five months.
Another woman from the uphill village of Tamparan in Munai, Lanao del Norte is named Racma Baluwa, 30 years of age.
She is a mother to five (5) little children. According to her, the husband’s income from farming is enough to sustain the needs of the family.
Racma is an active woman in their community. She is a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Women Arm Forces (BIWAF) - the women-wing of the armed forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). She is the Secretary of the Al-hajj Abdullah Bravo Mabapaar Cooperative- a group formed for the camps project in Camp Bilal.
Her participation to peacebuilding activities in the village is stirred by the experience of war and struggle in the past.
“I was a kid then, our family was among the evacuees. We heard the bombings, the gunshots”, Racma told.
Now, Racma hopes that their cooperative will bring gains for her family and the community, in general.
For her, the task may be exhausting but she finds joy working with people.
“I am very grateful to the donors and partners supporting. I do hope that this continues so as the peace to help the impoverished communities become progressive”, Racma said.
The cooperatives of Osoleya and Racma are among the beneficiaries of the PROACTIVE: Programme on Assistance for Camp Transformation through Inclusion, Violence Prevention and Economic Empowerment- a program that supports the current transformation and development in the camps.
It is a project co-funded by European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) implemented in collaboration with the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA Inc.). (From original post at https://bda.org.ph/index.php/research-publication/meet-the-people-in-the-camp-communities)
