DOLE gives equipment to handicraft makers

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) provided weaving equipment to water hyacinth handicraft weavers in Camarines Norte to enhance the growth of the industry.

The equipment worth nearly P250,000 was given to the Daet Water Lily Weavers Association (DWLWA), a group of families engaged in the production of exotic handicrafts out of the perennial aquatic herb that always clogged their rivers and lakes.

Nathaniel Lacambra, Bicol DOLE regional director said that the weaving equipment was provided by the DOLE under its Integrated Livelihood Program (DILP) for informal sector.

“It will help the association expand their production of native handicrafts,” Lacambra said.
DWLWA produces strings of dried water hyacinth fibers that are woven or interlinked to form a braid or cord used for making bags, baskets, footwear, hats, vases, Christmas lanterns, matting, decorative materials and other items.

The group is composed of about 100 handicraft weavers organized by the Daet Technology and Livelihood Development Center.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provided the members with industrial technology and also trained them on the various aspects of production and marketing.

Apart from keeping the local handicraft industry alive and providing employment and livelihood opportunities to hundreds of families in the province, DWLWA also helps tempering the multiplication of water hyacinth which grow dramatically on rivers and lakes.

“Water hyacinth’s massive growth covers water and, blocks water flows and sunlight from reaching native aquatic life, causing lack of oxygen that results in fish kill,” Lacambra said.

The plant also creates a prime habitat for mosquitoes, the classic vectors of disease and a species of snail known to host a parasitic flatworm which causes schistosomiasis.

The massive fish kill in Lake Buhi, Camarines Sur last year has been attributed in part to the uncontrolled growth of water lily.

“Since the plants are so prolific, harvesting them for industrial use serves also as a means of environmental control,” Lacambra explained.

Besides handicraft, the plant, being abundant in nitrogen content, can also be used a substrate for bio gas production and the sludge obtained from the bio gas.

“Its dried stems are used for baskets and furniture while the fibers are used as a raw material for paper,” he explained.

The DWLWA is only one of the dozen groups and sectors given livelihood and employment assistance by the DOLE in Bicol through its DILP, the agency’s contribution to the administration’s national agenda of reducing poverty through the promotion of livelihood and entrepreneurship.

Aimed at creating community enterprises through convergence of services, the program envisions productive, gainful and secure community employment to disadvantaged and vulnerable workers in the
informal economy.

“The program caters to workers in informal economy, engaged in small livelihood undertakings such as farmers, fisher folks, ambulant vendors and service providers, tricycle or pedicab drivers and operators and handicraft makers, among others, who are low-wage workers seeking to augment their income,” he said.

Returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and members of their family circle members as well as displaced workers due to economic crisis and natural calamities and armed conflicts are also benefiting from the DILP,he added.