Reality in Crabs
Name: Ruth Dongon
Branch: Victorias, Negros Occidental
Project Group: Project Dungganon (1997)
Businesses: Crab Retailing Business
Ruth was the fourth of nine children. Like most families from rural areas, Ruth did not finish school in order to help her parents put her younger siblings to school. She worked as a housekeeper in another town for some time until she decided to go home.
Little did she know that her decision to go back to her parents would make her fall in love, and get married to Roberto, a fisherman. The marriage blessed them with four children where they lived in a small nipa hut depending primarily on the money that Robert would receive each day from the fish he was able to sell.
Ruth knew that life was not something you should take for granted. She also knew that if she wasn’t going to work for it, then she would be stuck in a hole together with the other families depending only on their daily catch. She wanted something better for her family.
So with everything she knew about the fish business, she helped her husband, Roberto, by vending the catch for the day to the nearby farms. With hard work and perseverance, she would never come home without disposing off everything. Fortunately, with good marketing and persuasion, Ruth would always come home satisfied and exhausted. With no fish left to sell, Ruth’s fulfillment would end with the earnings from the day’s sale.
It was around this time that Project Dungganon came to their community in Latasan, E.B. Magalona. That was in 1997. Sometimes it takes great timing, the proper attitude and aggressiveness to strike gold and Ruth had all three on her side plus luck that would help her in the end.
Ruth’s first loan with Project Dungganon was P2,000 which later on increased to P6,000 then P8,000 up to her current loan of P20,000 for six months. With the money on hand, even with her own pump boat already, she purchased a bridge motor to contribute to their business. She paid her dues, the suppliers and her employees on time.
“When I give my word, I see to it that I deliver. If you trusted me to sell your catch in the morning, I will make sure you will receive your payment in the afternoon,” Ruth said.
With a growing reputation as a good contractor, suppliers came to her and stayed loyal to her because of her integrity. From the fish business, she ventured into crab vending which would become a more lucrative business with the returns twice as much compared to fish vending.
The growing number of suppliers preferred to transact with her because she assured them not only of a daily market but accommodated their demand for consumer goods and fishing supplies. Whatever they got form Ruth’s store supplies were deducted from the catch that they delivered to her - a system that favored Ruth and the suppliers very well.
With every loan made, it was plowed back into the purchase of crabs and other seafood product like prawns, shrimps and fish, including a second hand tricycle for delivering the crabs to the town market. They have since increased their number of pump boats to five.
Today, Ruth’s financial position has changed for the better. She entered into an advantageous arrangement with her contractor, where, instead of bringing her suppliers’ catch of crabs that day to the market, the crabs are cooked as they come in fresh, in a kitchen that the contractor set up near Ruth’s newly built concrete house. The contractor supplied her with a cook to cook the crabs, and big cauldrons, big stove, gas tanks and facilities to store water. With all these amenities, Ruth still gets a good price for her crabs.
Ruth has 50 crab suppliers in her area with another 30 suppliers in another area called Roma, also in E.B. Magalona. She is hoping to set up the same facilities in Guimaras, a town in the island of Panay. It is a dream she to achieve in the near future.
With the money coming in, Ruth was able to fix their home. What used to be a nipa hut has now become a house made of concrete and maximized the usage of their lot to expand the crab business. She has added new home appliances that her family can now enjoy.
With the blessings that Ruth has received, she hasn’t forgotten to give back to the employees who have helped her in making her business grow. When they need money, she lends it to them. And sometimes, they never get to pay her back, which is a condition she has learned to accept. Somehow, deep down, she never really expects them to repay her. She practiced what Project Dungganon has taught them about the importance of sharing and being able to give back to the community.
But not everything was smooth sailing for the Dongon’s. In 2007, they lost money and equipment totaling to an estimated P300,000 from a strong typhoon that left them devastated. To wreak havoc on small towns can easily demoralize people but the occurrence did not dampen the spirits of the Dongon family. Instead, without giving up or losing hope, they picked up the pieces together with a number of their suppliers and embraced the future.
So in 2008, with the loan credited to her by Project Dungganon, they were able to gain everything back again with hard work and move forward to fulfilling their dreams. Ruth has already reached a position where she could share her good fortune with her community, send her children to school and no longer worries where to earn money especially during the rainy season.
Ruth wants to see all her children graduate from college. She wants them to have a better life. She is working hard to build a business that she can pass on to her children, a legacy she hopes can last them a lifetime. However, she also knows that they will have to make their own destiny eventually, just like she did when she was younger. She knew what she wanted, took all the risks, reached for her goals and made it into a reality.