DOLE-NCR Regional Director Raymundo G. Agravante lauded the efforts of KILUS Foundation Environmental and Multipurpose Cooperative, whose primary objective is to clean up mother earth while providing livelihood to the less fortunate constituents of Pasig City. The cooperative, which makes eco-friendly bags out of recycled empty juice doy packs, provides green jobs to 500 beneficiaries.
The International Labour Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme defines green jobs as those activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality.
“With our country ranking 3rd in the United Nations Disaster Risk Index and 4rh in the Global Climate Risk Index, we have to do our share of saving this planet from climate change-related disasters like storms, floods, earthquakes, droughts and rising sea level. I commend KILUS Foundation for playing their part of protecting the environment for the past thirteen years now,” Dir. Agravante said.
I encourage our other stakeholders to also get involve with the government’s effort to adopt green solutions to reduce the risk posed by global warming and climate change. Because our DOLE-NCR PAPAMAMARISAN Field Office believes that green initiatives must start from the community, OIC-Director Maria Corazon Pepito recommended KILUS Foundation as its Community Enterprise Development Project and facilitated the release of P300,000.00 funding assistance,” Director Agravante added.
OIC-Director Pepito said, “Supporting initiatives like this addresses the challenge of harmonizing green sustainable development goals with anti-poverty agenda at the grassroots level. The expansion project provides gainful employment to additional 30 beneficiaries enabling theme to have sustainable income opportunities. With more than one million discarded doy packs needed as raw materials, we save mother earth from non-biodegradable garbage clogging into our drainage systems, piling up into our dumpsite producing more methane gas in the atmosphere and polluting our water resources.
The Kababaihang Iisa ang Layuning Umunlad ang Sambayanan (KILUS) Foundation of Barangay Ugong, Pasig City started as a community cleaning and greening advocate in 1998. With the garbage they have collected, they thought of putting up a viable livelihood project for their members.
Editha C. Santigo, KILUS foundation president said, “our pet project was ‘ Bawas Basura, Dagdag Kita’ in 1999. Because of our environmental protection thrust, the cooperative received multi-agency support coming from different government agencies over the years. This year TESDA lent us tools and equipment, the Pasig City Cooperative Assistance Project and the office of former Senator Rodolfo Biazon also believe in our causes and sends their support.”
Aside from catering to the demands in the local market, these recyclable bags and accessories have reached the international market like the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Australia and France to name a few. The demand for reusable bags increases due to the awareness of more people towards preserving the environment.
The livelihood grant from DOLE-NCR will be used to buy additional raw materials, hi speed sewing machines and other sewing tools and gigs.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer - November 11, 2011