Last February 12-15, 2018, the UST Simbahayan Community Development Office held its annual Pistang Tomasino trade fair with their partner communities. It was held at the Quadricentennial Square.

The event was held annually in order to showcase the works and products of the community partners of Simbahayan. Aside from partner communities, Simbahayan also invited non-government organizations to participate in the fair.

Many Tomasino, as well as faculty and staff went to the fair to support and patronize the products of our partner community. It is good to see that many Tomasino went to the fair to see the works of USTs partner community.

With its colorful banderitas, fiesta background music, and fiesta vibe, the event really has this festival feels! 

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Many partner communities showcase their skill with either their crafts, gardening, or making and processing foods. The partner communities sell crops, accessories with a theme of their culture, or food.  

There are many things to choose from the fair, but I chose to buy three bracelets and I also bought food in the event. 

I bought my two bracelets at the same partner community. The name of the organization is COWHED which stands for Cooperative of Women in Health and Development and they are from Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. They are a cooperative which helps women to make a living and also helps them take care of their health. They sell keychains, bracelets, earrings, rings, coin purse, and pouches. The one who makes the accessories are the T’boli tribe so most of the accessories has a touch of their culture. 

The first bracelet

The second bracelet

The beads that is used in the two bracelet I bought is made of wood. It doesn’t have much design, it is very simple. The first bracelet has an alternate pattern in putting the beads. The long beads are put in dark and light color pattern. While the second bracelet is purely made of light colored long beads. What I like with these bracelets is that they are very simple and minimalist but somehow it has a cultural touch. 

She Works -- Made in Hope

The next bracelet I bought is from She Works – Made in Hope, a non-government organization which helps those women who experienced human trafficking. Most of the things they sell are bracelets which is made by those women who experience human trafficking and abuse. The organization helps those women by engaging them in various projects in order to help them and they also train them to develop leadership skills in order for those women to be an advocate against human trafficking. They also sell necklace and earrings but I like bracelets more so I chose to buy one.

The design is also very simple and minimalist, it has three colored beads — red, yellow, and green. What I love about the bracelet is every color represents a sharing about human trafficking and its information. The red represents that we should stop human trafficking at all cost. Red also defines what human trafficking is. Human trafficking is recruiting, transporting, or transferring someone without the victim’s consent or knowledge. And in return, those in control of the victim receives more than the victim themselves.

Yellow represents the effects and warning signs of human trafficking. The sign of a person being a victim is that they don’t have much freedom to themselves. They are being controlled, manipulated, and exploited. The color yellow also represents the impacts of human trafficking physical, emotional, and social to its victims. The physical effect is that most victims are abused and sexually assaulted leaving their bodies with injuries. Its emotional effect is that the victim will have PTSD which will result in being depressed and being agitated. Its social effect is the victim will most likely experience shame, isolation, re-victimization, in an extreme case, this may lead to suicide.

Green represents that we should do something about human trafficking. We should support its victims by fighting for their rights, working with lawmakers to change and create laws about trafficking, and helping them by volunteering to organizations who helps those victims

The next thing I bought is champorado. I forgot to ask what organization they are from but they are from Kalinga province. All I can remember is that they are a tribe in Kalinga and they are selling their crops and processed foods. Their most popular product is the cooked champorado. I was curious because many students I can see roaming around the fair is eating champorado. I can see my friends going back and forth to the stall to buy champorado so I decided to also buy because maybe there is something about that champorado that people are going back to buy it. The flavor of the champorado is different from a plain champorado. Aside from its milky flavor because of the evaporated milk, its rice has this sweet flavor to it and it is organic. The milky flavor of evaporated milk, the chocolaty flavor of cocoa, and the sweet flavor of the rice complement each other maybe that is why many people bought it.

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In my opinion, bracelets with simple and minimalistic design will be a trend because people nowadays want something that is simple but it stands out. Not only they showcase their skills in art craft, but they also promote and advocate something which encourages the people to buy and support them. Food that is organic will also be a trend because people nowadays are conscious with their health and they want something that is healthy and natural.

After the fair, I realize that we should support the partner communities because it is their way of showing their livelihood and by because of our support to them, they are making a living. It is a good thing that UST is not just helping them on their needs, but also the University is doing something to help them stand on their own. I hope UST will showcase more partner communities and it will grow bigger next time so that everyone will have a chance to showcase their skills and livelihood to everyone.