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Village Handcrafters
More than a job, it’s a mission
Village Handcrafters’ Aireen Raymundo chooses ministry over personal advancement
By Called and Sent Staff
Village Handcrafters’ Aireen Raymundo chooses ministry over personal advancement
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Aireen Raymundo, right, and her son, James
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PHOTO GALLERY
CAINTA, Philippines—It’s just after dawn here in the squatter village of Cuatro. Aireen Raymundo is up, getting ready for work.
Her husband, Peter, is still out. He won’t finish his 1-to-7 shift as a driver for another hour. Her son, 4-year-old James, is up, waiting for his grandmother to come baby sit.
She has at least an hour-long commute ahead of her to Village Handcrafters, the ministry/paper factory/soap-making shop where she works. Her daily litany of taxis reads: a short tricycle ride(motorbike with sidecar), then the long leg on a jeepney (open-air mini-bus), then another trike. It takes an hour if traffic is good and the jeepney doesn’t break down. Otherwise it’s an hour and a half, maybe two. “It’s so tiring,” she says.
Aireen leaves home at 6:20. James stays with her mother. She walks across the cement basketball court that doubles as her front step. She strolls past the tin-roofed squatter shacks, past crowing roosters, down a steep street to catch the first trike. Four people cram into the sidecar, hip to hip, knee to back. Metro Manila comes to life as the trike’s 100cc motor groans through the gears.
Village Handcrafters (the Village, as Aireen calls it), is a livelihood ministry near Antipolo City, a suburb east of Manila. Livelihood ministries like the Village usually two missions: They provide jobs to people in impoverished areas and produce goods that are sold to support local ministries.
The Village was begun in 1995 by Ed and Janet Landry, missionaries with Action International. Action International specializes in outreach to the poor, including evangelism to squatter areas, vocational training and church planting.
Papermaking drove Landry’s original vision for the Village. Today 15 full-time employees make high-end paper, scented soaps, decorative boxes and other handicrafts. The items are sold through churches in the U.S., at local bazaars and by order for larger jobs. The money from sales, minus salaries and overhead, supports local churches, including a small one on the Village’s campus.
Hello, I must be staying
Aireen could have left all this less than two months ago. She could have packed up her family and joined her brother in the United Arab Emirates, working as a cashier at a golf course in Dubai, 4,200 miles away. She would have joined a large Filipino community on the Saudi Peninsula—more than a million strong in Saudi Arabia alone.
And she would have made more money. Working as the Village’s soap maker, Aireen takes home 360 pesos (about $7 U.S.) a day, or 7,200 pesos ($140) a month. The new job would have been a nice step up.
“Actually it’s hard to think about because it’s a high salary, and they also have benefits,” Aireen, 29, says of the job in Dubay. “But I prayed to the Lord, if He wanted me to go there. But I think His answer is no.”
Pastor Arnold Vegerano is glad for her help. His congregation, All for Jesus Church, meets in a small building on the Village’s campus. It is one of three local churches the Village supports.
As the Village creates paper and soap products, the church is trying to create opportunities for people living in local squatter villages. One is schooling poor children in three different schools, one of which operates at the church. Arnold says bringing quality education to kids for free or through sponsorships is one way to reach their families with Christ’s love in a tangible way.
Another avenue is the church’s One Handful of Love program: Every Sunday, every member who can brings a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice or some canned goods to share with other members who need it more.
The Village’s revenues help make this Filipino-to-Filipino ministry possible. Tight as Aireen’s finances are (her husband can only add about 2,000 pesos a month to her salary), she shares that burden.
“It’s a small salary, but the benefit that I like is that I work there not only for the people but for Christ,” she says. “That’s the big benefit that I have.”
New job, new life
And it beats hawking ice cream at a mall seven days a week — her job until she joined the Village’s staff six years ago. Back then, Aireen was a “Selecta girl,” handing out samples for a leading Philippines ice cream manufacturer.
One day Janet Landry visited Aireen’s Baptist church and asked her if she wanted to work at the Village. After three years working for Selecta with no benefits, it didn’t take Aireen long to choose. She resigned from Selecta a week later.
Now instead of selling for a corporation she manufactures for a mission. She knows the recipe by heart:
In addition to sales through overseas churches, the Village also sells its soap, paper and baskets at a local bazaar once a month. A recent bazaar grossed 13,000 pesos (more than $200), a nice day’s return.
But the Village could always use more customers. “Marketing is our weak point for sure,” says Mike Gingerich, assistant international director for Action International in the Philippines, who runs the paper making operation for the Village. “That’s true of every livelihood ministry that I know of. It’s easy to produce the product, it’s easy to find people to do the work, and it’s easy to train them to do it. The difficult thing is to sell what’s produced.”
At its high point the Village employed 24 people. Now it’s down to 15 full-timers and looking for new avenues to market its products. But for people like Aireen—who probably would still be working the Selecta sample table if it weren’t for the Village—working there makes all the difference.
“Because I serve the Lord in a mission, I have joy,” she says.
CAINTA, Philippines—It’s just after dawn here in the squatter village of Cuatro. Aireen Raymundo is up, getting ready for work.
Her husband, Peter, is still out. He won’t finish his 1-to-7 shift as a driver for another hour. Her son, 4-year-old James, is up, waiting for his grandmother to come baby sit.
She has at least an hour-long commute ahead of her to Village Handcrafters, the ministry/paper factory/soap-making shop where she works. Her daily litany of taxis reads: a short tricycle ride(motorbike with sidecar), then the long leg on a jeepney (open-air mini-bus), then another trike. It takes an hour if traffic is good and the jeepney doesn’t break down. Otherwise it’s an hour and a half, maybe two. “It’s so tiring,” she says.
Aireen leaves home at 6:20. James stays with her mother. She walks across the cement basketball court that doubles as her front step. She strolls past the tin-roofed squatter shacks, past crowing roosters, down a steep street to catch the first trike. Four people cram into the sidecar, hip to hip, knee to back. Metro Manila comes to life as the trike’s 100cc motor groans through the gears.
Village Handcrafters (the Village, as Aireen calls it), is a livelihood ministry near Antipolo City, a suburb east of Manila. Livelihood ministries like the Village usually two missions: They provide jobs to people in impoverished areas and produce goods that are sold to support local ministries.
The Village was begun in 1995 by Ed and Janet Landry, missionaries with Action International. Action International specializes in outreach to the poor, including evangelism to squatter areas, vocational training and church planting.
Papermaking drove Landry’s original vision for the Village. Today 15 full-time employees make high-end paper, scented soaps, decorative boxes and other handicrafts. The items are sold through churches in the U.S., at local bazaars and by order for larger jobs. The money from sales, minus salaries and overhead, supports local churches, including a small one on the Village’s campus.
Hello, I must be staying
Aireen could have left all this less than two months ago. She could have packed up her family and joined her brother in the United Arab Emirates, working as a cashier at a golf course in Dubai, 4,200 miles away. She would have joined a large Filipino community on the Saudi Peninsula—more than a million strong in Saudi Arabia alone.
And she would have made more money. Working as the Village’s soap maker, Aireen takes home 360 pesos (about $7 U.S.) a day, or 7,200 pesos ($140) a month. The new job would have been a nice step up.
“Actually it’s hard to think about because it’s a high salary, and they also have benefits,” Aireen, 29, says of the job in Dubay. “But I prayed to the Lord, if He wanted me to go there. But I think His answer is no.”
Pastor Arnold Vegerano is glad for her help. His congregation, All for Jesus Church, meets in a small building on the Village’s campus. It is one of three local churches the Village supports.
As the Village creates paper and soap products, the church is trying to create opportunities for people living in local squatter villages. One is schooling poor children in three different schools, one of which operates at the church. Arnold says bringing quality education to kids for free or through sponsorships is one way to reach their families with Christ’s love in a tangible way.
Another avenue is the church’s One Handful of Love program: Every Sunday, every member who can brings a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice or some canned goods to share with other members who need it more.
The Village’s revenues help make this Filipino-to-Filipino ministry possible. Tight as Aireen’s finances are (her husband can only add about 2,000 pesos a month to her salary), she shares that burden.
“It’s a small salary, but the benefit that I like is that I work there not only for the people but for Christ,” she says. “That’s the big benefit that I have.”
New job, new life
And it beats hawking ice cream at a mall seven days a week — her job until she joined the Village’s staff six years ago. Back then, Aireen was a “Selecta girl,” handing out samples for a leading Philippines ice cream manufacturer.
One day Janet Landry visited Aireen’s Baptist church and asked her if she wanted to work at the Village. After three years working for Selecta with no benefits, it didn’t take Aireen long to choose. She resigned from Selecta a week later.
Now instead of selling for a corporation she manufactures for a mission. She knows the recipe by heart:
- Mix coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, corn oil and lye in a pot over gas fire for 20 minutes.
- Add fragrance. Mix in.
- Pour into mold, let set overnight.
- Next morning, cut into bars.
- Cure on shelf 15 to 21 days.
In addition to sales through overseas churches, the Village also sells its soap, paper and baskets at a local bazaar once a month. A recent bazaar grossed 13,000 pesos (more than $200), a nice day’s return.
But the Village could always use more customers. “Marketing is our weak point for sure,” says Mike Gingerich, assistant international director for Action International in the Philippines, who runs the paper making operation for the Village. “That’s true of every livelihood ministry that I know of. It’s easy to produce the product, it’s easy to find people to do the work, and it’s easy to train them to do it. The difficult thing is to sell what’s produced.”
At its high point the Village employed 24 people. Now it’s down to 15 full-timers and looking for new avenues to market its products. But for people like Aireen—who probably would still be working the Selecta sample table if it weren’t for the Village—working there makes all the difference.
“Because I serve the Lord in a mission, I have joy,” she says.
© 2006 Called and Sent Magazine. All Rights Reserved.