Giving women a life-changing ‘starter kit’

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “starter kit”? Most people think of something basic. A box of essentials. Enough to get you going, but not the whole story. The rest is up to you.

That is exactly how this writer describes the Pambansang Kalipunan ng mga Manggagawang Impormal sa Pilipinas. More commonly known as PATAMABA, it is a member-based organization (MBO) and a national network that has been defending and advancing the collective interests of home-based and other informal economy workers since 1991.

Ate Linda (not her real name) wakes up before sunrise, prepares breakfast for her family, sends her children to school, and then sits at her sewing machine to fill bag orders for the week. By evening, she manages the household, cooks dinner, and attends to whatever else the day requires before she retires to sleep. She is a woman home-based worker in the informal economy. Millions of Filipino women in urban communities are in the same situation.

In a research study this writer conducted among nine women home-based workers affiliated with PATAMABA in Quezon City, one emergent finding is that PATAMABA appears to serve as a “starter kit” for its members. Indeed, it provides, among others, a peer network of women who share the same occupational identity, skills-building trainings that convert home-based work into a marketable craft, and means to build economic security through its Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA).

The national president of PATAMABA, Ms. Lourdes A. Gula, confirmed this insight when she explained, "Pero may mga pagkakataon din naman na yung iba, dahil may kakulangan sa pangangailangan, meron tayong website. Nakikita nila doon yung programa ni PATAMABA. Sila na yung naghahanap. Sila na yung tumatawag para madausan sila ng iba't ibang pagkakakitaan para makatulong sa kanila."

The point is this: PATAMABA does not promise its members a specific outcome. It provides a dignified starting point. What each member does from there is her own.

Before joining PATAMABA, several participants in this writer’s study were predominantly homebound, economically isolated, and lacked access to affordable credit, among other factors. Membership addressed each of those conditions. It drew them out of the isolation of working alone at home, gave their work a community of recognition, and provided a financial alternative to informal lending.

The data also showed that the same starting point produced very different outcomes. One participant became a national trainer, conducting skills sessions in multiple regions. Another chose the financial stability of salaried work and decided to sew for Purple Market, PATAMABA’s online market, which it created to recognize and promote the products of its home-based workers. One organization, nine participants, nine different trajectories.

In this regard, the writer recommends that national government agencies working with informal economy workers, such as the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and local government units in areas with high concentrations of informal economy workers, prioritize the operationalization of a comprehensive informal sector database as a critical step in implementing the Trabaho Para sa Bayan (TPB) Plan 2025-2034.

More broadly, collaboration with membership-based organizations like PATAMABA and non-profit organizations is recommended if these agencies have their own “starter kits” for informal economy workers or are looking to improve programs for them. These organizations already know the workers, have their trust, and provide the conditions that make further government interventions more effective.

Ultimately, accountability rests on the following players. PATAMABA is accountable for initiating the dignified starting point for women home-based workers and other informal economy workers. The women home-based workers are accountable for pursuing and maintaining the drive that no organization can create for them. And finally, the State is accountable for reducing the structural barriers that lie beyond what any MBO can address. Among them, legal recognition, social protection coverage, and a regulatory environment in which formalization means genuine access to a better livelihood, not just a compliance requirement.

So the next time you come across the phrase “starter kit,” do not think it ends with the contents in the box. One participant in the study expressed her PATAMABA experience as follows: “Yung nabigyan niya ng buhay yung pagkatao ko. Hindi lang ako namuhay bilang plain na nanay lang na nakatutok lang sa gawaing bahay."

The organization gave her a sense of self beyond her domestic identity. She built the rest of her story. The “starter kit” was just the beginning.

Lisa Bruan is a Part-time faculty lecturer, Department of Decision Sciences and Innovation, De La Salle University.