Felicidad Sinalua

Mrs. Felicidad Sinalua's journey started way back in her childhood. She learned her trade from her parents who were ginamos makers. In 1955, when she was still a teenager, she started buying fresh krill and making her own ginamos. She sold her products in nearby towns by setting up a stand in each town's market during market day. She continued her ambulatory business even after she got married and, by then, she already had a few regular customers who came to her house to buy her ginamos.

Because she wanted to expand her business, she joined NWTF-Project Dungganon in 1994 to access additional capital. She put her entire first loan into her business and she got very good returns on her investment. For the past 15 years, while she's been a member of NWTF-Project Dungganon, she has maintained her good credit standing by paying her loans on time and attending the center meetings. As her business prospered, Felicidad expanded her product lines. She now also sells asin (sea salt) and coconut wine called tuba. She earns an average monthly net income of 16,000 pesos from her business activities, and this has been a big help in defraying the family's expenses, with enough left over to pay for the education of her children in previous years. She was also able to renovate her house with her savings.

Mrs. Felicidad Sinalua is a 69-year-old married woman with six adult children ranging in age from 31 to 42 years old. She is from Brgy. Canjusa, Pulupandan, Negros Occidental. By sheer will and determination, she was able to send all of her children to school to earn their college degrees. All of them now have their own families and are gainfully employed. Their achievements have made Felicidad very proud and, for her, she has already attained her life's dream – according to her, all because she had NWTF-Project Dungganon for support all these years.

Felicidad is a businesswoman with good entrepreneurial instincts who seeks new opportunities so that she can provide her family with financial security. Now she wants to borrow 12,000 pesos for her 15th loan cycle to use mainly as additional working capital for her ginamos business and the rest for her sea salt and coconut wine ventures.

A little about ginamos, asin and tuba:
"Ginamos" is a generic Hiligaynon (the local dialect in the Western Visayas Islands) term for anything that is salted and allowed to ferment. But when referring to other salted products, it is qualified by adding the item that was salted. For example, salted duck's eggs are called ginamos nga itlog, salted fish is called ginamos nga isda, and salted mussels are called ginamos nga tahong. When the term "ginamos" is used alone, it usually refers to the pasty product made from minute shrimp-like crustaceans (possibly pacific krill) that are salted, dried and pounded into a paste. Ginamos is known as "bagoong" in Tagalog, although some of the processing steps are a bit different and the taste is also a bit different. Negrenses pride themselves on being the makers of the best ginamos in the country, and Pulupandan is one of the towns that has the tradition and recipe handed down for several generations. Ginamos is used as a flavor enhancer in a lot of Filipino dishes, but it is also a dish in itself. It is usually cooked by adding coconut vinegar and sauteed with lots of crushed garlic and a little bit of sugar to balance the saltiness. Sometimes fried pork rind is added to make it even more special. It is usually served with green mangoes or as a side dish for kare-kare, a Filipino dish made with oxtail or beef cooked in a peanut sauce with vegetables.

Asin, or sea salt, is made by sun drying sea water on shallow flats until the liquid evaporates and salt crystals appear. Once the salt bed is dry, the salt crystals are gathered and packed into sacks for distribution. Sea salt remains the preferred flavor enhancer in many Negrense kitchens, because many cooks contend that sea salt packs a better flavor than the fine iodized table salt sold in groceries.

Tuba, or coconut wine, is made, not from coconut water inside the coconut, but rather by "wounding" the unopened flower clusters and collecting the sweet sap drops into a container. The flower clusters are usually lacerated early in the morning to get the sweeter sap, and the containers are usually gathered in the afternoon just in time for the men to arrive home from work. The slightly alcoholic beverage makes a refreshing drink after a hard day in the fields. If the tuba is not consumed within the day, it is kept in glass bottles in a cool dark place to ferment into vinegar. Like balsamic vinegar, tuba vinegar improves with age. Tuba vinegar is one of the most fragrant and flavorful vinegars in the Philippines.

About NWTF:
In a world full of challenges, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Inc. has answered the call of not just a few, but thousands of women. Through the alleviation program, these women have progressed from earning less than a measly $1 a day, to realities surpassing their dreams. They have learned to live a life that can finally be called honorable. This is Project Dungganon!

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