“I am Jose Panganoron Jr.,married with two children and residing at Brgy Manyayay, Lainga, Surigao del Sur. I am currently the president of the Pocto Seaweeds Planters and Farmers Association (PSPFA) with a total membership of 56 members. We are a growing organization receiving assistance from AECID, CODESPA and PDAP in their efforts to uplift individual lives through seaweeds farming. Among the projects implemented was the establishment of seaweeds nursery with a working area and solar dryer. However, these facilities were destroyed by the typhoon leaving only the working area which we are using until now to dry our seaweeds to ensure high quality of our products.
The PDAP project implementers have also imparted trainings aimed at improving the capacities of our organization concerning management, basic accounting and bookkeeping for our internal control systems. As of now, we already have a bank account and we continued to do our part as members by setting-up a capital build-up fund and paying our monthly dues. We have even agreed to volunteer ourselves to use our own money for fares and transportation expenses so the organizational funds could solely be used for other purposes like supplies and other needs.
We are so grateful with PDAP for helping us and we wish that more communities will benefit from their assistance.”