SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CHAMPION.
Single mom and bead jewelry maker Delia ‘Dhel’ Gambol (center) is flanked by (from left) DTI Cavite Director Noly D. Guevara, a Go Negosyo representative, DTI Calabarzon Director Marilou Q. Toledo and DTI Cavite Division Chief Revelyn Cortez as she completes, along with 19 others, the DTI's ‘Kapatid Mentor ME,’ program in General Trias City on Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo courtesy of DTI Region IV-A)
TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite – A single mom, who ventured into bead jewelry-making enterprise, envisions her business to become a social enterprise, one with a corporate social responsibility for the ecology and provide income and employment to the community.
Delia ‘Dhel’ Gambol, of Dhelightful creations, who uses upcycled materials like tahong shells, river stones, mahogany fruit, and fish scales for her crafty pieces, shares that various Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) seminars like the Promotion of Green Economic Development (ProGED), One Town One Product (OTOP), and SME Roving Academy, turned her to be a big supporter of the ‘Go Green’ Campaign, which promotes eco-friendly jewelry.
Before starting her own, Dhel has explored various opportunities “from sales, marketing and tutoring on the sides of my full-time work” to sustain her and her son’s day-to-day needs.
The rigors, stress and monotonous day to day routine of her trade and profession, Dhel resorted to bead making, “as my outlet for creative expression”.
Her fascination into tinkering small things to create crafty pieces became a passion, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Social entrepreneurship is the direction she is taking that will define her management credo as she presented her business’ next steps to culminate her 12-week training as part of the 20 Cavite micro and small enterprises (MSEs) who recently completed DTI’s KMME (‘Kapatid Mentor ME) program in General Trias City last Nov. 15.
This DTI program is a coaching and mentoring program that brings together experts and industry leaders who provide a series of free mentoring sessions to help small players scale up their businesses, in partnership with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc.- Go Negosyo, designed to contribute to economic growth and address issues of employment, job mismatch and migration and equips the mentees with technical concepts and protocols in running a business.
In this program, lecture materials are simplified for effective digestion, and actual samples were demonstrated for effective illustration. Aimed to scale up small players, mentees’ confidence were built and guided on their business improvement plan where they are graded based on effectiveness of their presentation.
At the culminating event, DTI IV-A (Calabarzon) Director Marilou Q. Toledo, in her keynote speech, emphasizes the phrase, “The world is our market “, so that SMEs realize how big the opportunities are that can come from anywhere.
“Through KMME, we want to take our MSMEs to a whole new level of success and grab these opportunities as we envision them to be globally competitive.”(PNA)
