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Dire Husi: Interconnecting Indigenous Young Artisans and Young Urban Fashionistas through Fair Trade

Mike Banos

December 01, 2008

An article published in American Chronicle and Kagay-an.com

A home-grown initiative seeking to link indigenous youth artisans and affluent youth consumers in Manila and Mindanao has been recognized as one of the three winners in the I Am A Changemaker Competition of British Council Philippines.

Rhyan Casiño's Dire Husi: Interconnecting Indigenous Young Artisans and Young Urban Fashionistas through Fair Trade (Intercultural Dialogue) was adjudged the winner for Mindanao following the final phase of the competition last 22 November at The Linden Suites, Ortigas Centre, Pasig City.

Prior to the panel presentation, the top 15 proposals were uploaded on the British Council website for on-line voting from 5-15 November. Based on scores from the preliminary judging and points garnered from online voting, the top three project proponents from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were selected by a five member judging panel, representing leaders from business, the academe, government and social entrepreneurs based on the panel presentation, the final stage of the competition.

The three finalists representing each region received a PhP 100,000 grant each for the implementation of their projects within a 6-month period. In addition to the prize money, a project management training will be provided to members of the winning organization in order to strengthen their internal capacity to deliver their projects.

I Am A Changemaker was one of the British Council's activities to mark the first ever Global Entrepreneurship Week last 17-23 November .

Casiño's project bested two other finalists from Mindanao: Acting Towards Change ( Intercultural Dialogue/ Environment ) by the Kids for Peace Foundation of Cotabato City and ALEY-NM Living Museum Project (Environment/ Education) by the Association of Locally-Empowered Youth in Northern Mindanao, Initao, Misamis Oriental.

I Am a Changemaker is a project grant competition for school and community-based youth organizations on how development issues and concerns on education, the environment, and/ or intercultural diversity can be addressed through youth leadership and social entrepreneurship.

The British Council defines diversity in terms of its mission to promote positive social change through building trust, increasing understanding, reforming cultural stereotypes/perception, and countering misinformation and prejudice through intercultural dialogue.

I Am a Changemaker sought to encourage the participation of young people in addressing issues and concerns regarding education, environment, and intercultural diversity as proactive citizens and development partners; strengthen the delivery mechanisms of youth-led development projects by providing a 3-day project management workshop and by periodic mentoring; create a sustainable community of young people who can share their experience of implementing community-based projects through entrepreneurship; and establish a functional network of youth organizations that would complement the British Council Philippines on its development initiatives

Project proposals should address issues and concerns on education, environment, and/ or intercultural diversity; espouse youth leadership and social entrepreneurship; and promote a consultative and participatory process to ensure ownership and enhanced sustainability to promote community-based entrepreneurial activities

Casiño's project, "Dire Husi: Interconnecting Indigenous Young Artisans and Young Urban Fashionistas through Fair Trade (Intercultural Dialogue)" was presented by his cottage industry

Dire Husi Crafts and Accessories from Iponan, Cagayan de Oro City .

In his project proposal, Casiño said "Dire" (Visayan for here) "Husi" (Manobo for friend) aims to connect the "affluent and comfortable" young people in urban areas of Mindanao to the "marginalized and disadvantaged" young artisans of Northern Mindanao through a uniquely tangible foundation of youth culture: Fashion Accessories.

"Through necklaces with terracotta clay pendants, amulets with delicately crafted carvings and semi-precious stones, bracelets with indigenous colors and patterns, anklets with coco-shells and cow-bones shaped into elegant forms," Casiño said. "Small, creative products that are hip, but act as a meaningful reminder that young people are making their way out of poverty; that connection and communion are possible; that after all, both marginalized and affluent young people have a friend somewhere."

Fair Trade can make that "interconnection" possible, he stressed.

Casiño noted that indigenous, out-of-school-youth artisans from Northern Mindanao, who moved away from their native domains to search for a better life in the city (Cagayan de Oro), have demonstrated their intrinsic talent and expressed their identities through the creation of indigenous design-inspired necklaces, bracelets, accessories, and amulets. The youth social enterprise created by Casiño with partners from the indigenous youth artisans in 2004 called "Dire Husi" has provided more than 500 young Manobo, Higaonon, Umayamnon, Tigwahanon, and Matigsalug people with alternative sources of income.

"Although their products are artful, unique, and beautifully raw, they find it difficult to sustain their operations because they could not penetrate into a wider, fairer, market: a market where their products/"artworks" can be valued, sold, and priced with dignity," Casiño noted.

Fortunately, the Dire Husi proponents didn't have to look far. They perceived the emerging youth sub-culture characterized by social and environmental awareness, especially among university and college students in urban areas in Mindanao (Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and General Santos City), and Metro Manila, as the 'springboard" for a new hip, socially and environmentally cool buying behavior, a fire starter of a more "evolved" fashion sense.

"And this could only mean one thing for Dire Husi, the emergence of a sustainable, ready-market for their products," Casiño noted.

With the proceeds from their prize money, Casiño said Dire Husi would explore further ways to buff up the business viability of their enterprise, affirm and enhance the "self-actualizing" value of creative expression among young artisans, and attempt to reach the 'untapped' socially conscious youth markets in urban areas, especially in Cagayan De Oro City, and Metro Manila.

Global Entrepreneurship Week: Young people can make things happen

by Gino de la Paz
Published in Philippine Star, November 29, 2008

Due to a recent succession of awe-inspiring events, change has been a word the world-at-large has been hearing a lot lately. But before you think that this soft-focus hopefulness only envelops the White House, I’d like you to shift your gaze to a few makeovers taking place in our own corner of the Earth.

To mark the first-ever Global Entrepreneurship Week, the British Council in Manila, the UK government’s cultural relations organization, partnered up with the Philippine Youth and Employment Network (PYEN) and the kind folks at Ernst & Young by initiating a forum on social entrepreneurship. Aside from inspiring young people to become conscientious self-starters, the town-hall-meeting-of-sorts also coincided with the announcement of winners for “I Am A Changemaker,” the British Council’s nationwide project grant competition. The opportunity was too good to pass up and I’m not going to lie: It was the most enlightening Saturday afternoon I’ve had in months.

Making it happen

Turning the place into an instant lecture hall, the Ateneo de Manila University’s Harvey Keh, founder of Pathways to Higher Education, put the day’s session into perspective. “According to Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, ‘Education and economic development are related to each other,’” Keh said. Both entertaining and sobering, his presentation threw down the bottom line: that Pinoy youth, through our inherent creativity and caffeine-fueled enthusiasm, can become catalysts for positive change in society. “The key word here is ‘I’. I can be a changemaker,” he concluded. “Why don’t you make it happen?”

Those saddled with a jaded point-of-view would’ve likely dismissed it all as annoying political rhetoric. (And after being pummeled by the same carpe diem-type empowerment — everyone from university professors to the Disney Channel has delivered this message at some point — it doesn’t come as a shock.) So to ground things, a few of Harvey Keh’s ex-students recalled their respective social entrepreneurship success stories.

Feel-good projects

The three winning groups from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao receive their grant from Nannette Mercado, assistant director for programmes, and David Hopkinson, British Council acting country director.

First in front was Mian Alampay, who talked about two feel-good projects: the Bright Kids Learning Center at the Batasan Hills Elementary School (bklc.multiply.com) and Chains for Change at the New Bilibid Prison Community. Some of the social entrepreneurship essentials on her list — or “SE-ssentials,” as she branded them — are a positive attitude and the right mindset. “You can dream big, but you still have to keep your feet on the ground,” she adds, realizing perhaps that sustainability is also something an aspiring mini-mogul should consider.

Next up were Maui Papa and Kat Avandela of Billabag, a line of accessories fashioned from discarded tarpaulins (billabag.multiply.com). They admit that finding materials and funding for their fledgling business was a challenge (“Companies wouldn’t give us their used tarps even if we told them it was for a good cause”), but their persistence is slowly paying off. Most important, the two see Billabag as a collaborative effort; to be fair to the housewives in Payatas who sew their bags, the girls have asked them for their input regarding compensation.

Social networking pedefined

Time finally came to announce the three winning project proponents. Proposal writing is an art form in itself and a five-member panel, representing leaders from business and the academe to government and social entrepreneurs, had to choose one team each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. These youth groups received P100,000 apiece to turn their awesome ideas into reality over a six-month period.

From Luzon came Bicol University’s Symbiosis, whose GREENPage project wants to “systematize and centralize” the collection of paper waste within the premier educational institution. The community that will benefit from all this is close to home — the 7,000 students that populate the main, east, and west campuses of the university.

Meanwhile, the Visayas region was repped by Project Green University, an initiative proposed by the University of San Carlos Cebu City’s Supreme Student Council. Their environmental endeavor aims to “clear out any renewable garbage waste in and around the university in exchange for usable school and office materials such as pens, paper, photocopy credit, etc.”

Last, Mindanao should be proud of Dire Husi, a project that seeks to “interconnect indigenous youth artisans and young urban fashionistas through fair trade.” If you ask the group from Iponan, Cagayan de Oro City, they’ll tell you that the answer to harmony lies in accessories. Dire Husi will provide young Manobo, Higaonon, Umayamnon, Tigwahanon, and Matigsalug people with a steady source of income as well as a market where their art can be appreciated and sold equitably. It’s win-win all around.

As guests mingled and participants swapped ideas and contact details, it became apparent that despite what has been said repeatedly about Filipino youth and apathy, all is not lost. There are still young people who possess the self-belief not only to think of innovative schemes but to put them into practice. The forum may have drawn to a close but for our generation’s newly-minted entrepreneurs, the challenge of running an economically viable and socially responsible business has definitely just begun.

Changing the world, one child at a time

by Rachel C. Barawid
(originally published in Manila Bulletin)


A group of reformed youths in Mindanao leave their wasted lives behind to become changemakers in their communities.

Nineteen-year-old Rustie Quintana started living on the streets of Cagayan de Oro City at five. He survived by sniffing rugby, stealing and peddling drugs.

Rhyan Casino, 31, on the other hand, dropped out of school to pursue a gypsy-like lifestyle, going through life with no direction and destination.

High school graduate David Yañez, 20, wanted to continue his studies but could not afford it.

Then one day, the paths of these three outcasts crossed. And they found inspiration, healing, and hope in one another.

Now organized into a group of artisans called Dream Arts Kagay-an, the three and several others like them combine their talents in an arts and crafts business that aims to support themselves and their communities.

Eventually, the group was recognized and awarded a R100,000 grant for their business. Out of more than a hundred aspiring youth groups, Dream Arts was chosen among the top three winners, representing Mindanao in the "I am a Changemaker" project grant competition of the British Council.

WASTED LIVES

Rustie and his older brother ran away from home and grew up on the streets. But at seven, Rustie found himself abandoned when his brother was jailed for stealing food. He was then forced to support himself by taking on odd jobs such as washing cars, selling newspapers, balut and other street food. But it just wasn’t enough, so Rustie began stealing, snatching bags, sniffing rugby and doing drugs.

But he still dreamt of going to school even amid the darkness he was surrounded with.

"Pag abot ko ng nine years old, nagdesisyon ako na gusto ko mag-aral. Noon pa lang may ambisyon na ko. Naiinggit ako pag may nakikita akong mga estudyante,’’ Rustie looks back.

Through local and foreign social workers who spent time reading the Bible to him and other streetkids, Rustie realized that he needed to turn away from his old ways. "Kaya isang araw pumunta ako sa police station. Sabi ko gusto ko mag-aral. Hinatid ako sa Mother Teresa Foundation sa Cagayan de Oro at pinag-aral nila ako. One month lang ako nag kinder. Nakita nila magaling ako kaya naaccelerate ako ng Grade 1, tapos Grade 3, tapos Grade 5 kaagad. Pero nung pag Grade 6 ko nagstop ako kasi wala na yung tumulong," recalls Rustie.

A Malaysian non-government organization offered Rustie a scholarship in Malaysia but his brother who escaped from prison, prevented him from going. His friends also disoriented him about the opportunity to study abroad. "Tinatakot ako ng mga kaibigan ko na huwag na daw ako sumama kasi tatadtarin ako dun baka di na ko makauwi. So opportunity na sana yun. Bata pa ko nun kaya naniwala ako," he relates.

He lost the opportunity to continue his studies and his brother again dragged Rustie back into their old life on the streets. "Kapatid ko bine-blame ko talaga kasi kung hindi niya ko ginalaw dun going straight na sana ako," he admits.

But this time, he didn’t get away with it. "Natuto ako mag drugs. Puro kasamaan na ginawa ko, how to get big money. So nag benta ako ng shabu. Runner ako. Everyday malaki bentahan. Tapos nahuli ako sa Iligan nung 14 years old ako."

Rustie could have rotted in the maximum security prison but since he was a minor, he was sent to rehabilitation instead. It was here where he finally reformed as he discovered his worth and developed a relationship with the Lord. Because of a good record, Rustie was able to cut short his five-year sentence. His brother and friends were again waiting for him. But he decided to stick to his decision to change.

"Sawang-sawa na ko sa kasamaan. Inisip ko paglabas ko anong gagawin ko? Pag hindi ko babaguhin sarili ko para akong mabahong isda, babalik na naman. Gusto ko tikman ang kabutihan," reveals Rustie whose friends weren’t lucky enough to survive the jungle in the streets as most of them were salvaged.

STARTING ANEW

Fresh out of rehab, Rustie met Rhyan in a fiesta. Seeing the latter’s painting in an exhibit, Rustie suddenly saw himself in it and understood what it meant. It turned out Rhyan lived carelessly as well, choosing to bum around than finish his studies at the Ateneo de Cagayan.

"Gaya nila nawalan din ako ng direksyon dati. Pero dumating yung point na narealize ko na dapat na ko magbago. Nakilala ko ang Panginoon kaya nabalik ako sa tamang daan. At simula noon, sinikap ko rin na makatulong sa mga taong katulad ko," shares Rhyan who has since been a talented musician, painter and cultural worker of various ethnic tribes in Mindanao.

He later on formed the Dream Arts Kagay-an, a group of artists with exceptional talents in various arts such as painting, music, handicraft-making, and performing. They go around various places particularly in festivals to perform, and sell crafts which are mostly indigenous products they made themselves or sourced from tribal communities. Rustie joined Rhyan’s group and from then on discovered a whole new world that is much kinder to him.

"Ang pakiramdam ko ngayon magaan. Naglalakad ka ng walang takot. Hindi tulad dati na lagi ka nagtatago. Wala ka naaapakan at gumagawa ka ng kabutihan. Youth leader na rin ako sa mga street kids sa amin. Gumagawa kami ng kanta at nagba-Bible study kami," Rustie happily shares, adding that he lives in a dormitory now and not in the streets.

He proudly reported that his brother is a changed man as well. Seeing the change in him, his brother also turned his back from his old ways and started an ukay-ukay business.

The highlight of his new life, Rustie says, is the golden opportunity to go back to school. He just finished taking the Accredition and Equivalency Test under the Alternative Learning System program of the Department of Education in their area and is now awaiting the results. If he passes, Rustie will be able to go to college at Xavier University through a scholarship grant being offered to him by a priest.

FINDING GUIDANCE

David, the youngest in Rhyan’s Dream Arts group, started his life in the right direction but got lost along the way.

Although a member of the Higaonon tribe in Talakag, Bukidnon, David grew up in the city without knowing his culture and traditions. In high school, David was forced to work for his tuition because his mother, a massage therapist, could no longer afford it. His brothers, didn’t want to shoulder that responsibility.

Yet David made good in school and even joined competitions for his skill in drawing and painting. "Gusto ko maging architect or draftsman. Isa akong percussionist at flutist. Mahilig din ako gumawa ng mga crafts, ornaments, bags. At binebenta ko mga native products ko sa Divisoria park sa Cagayan."

But no matter how talented he is, David’s meager earnings from his crafts were not enough to send him to college. They were offers of scholarships but he was forced to decline because he didn’t have money for transportation, food or for projects required in school.

Then, David met Rhyan in one of the trade fairs where they were both selling their wares.

"Niyaya ako ni Kuya Rhyan sumama sa kanya at pumunta sa Malaybalay para magtinda. Sabi ko sarili ko baka eto na yung opportunity na hinihintay ko. Pag ibang tao kasama ko, mabigat pakiramdam ko. Pag siya ang gaan at walang iniisip na masama," he recalls.

"Naisip ko paano yun, hahayaan nalang ba natin hanggang dun na lang ang buhay nila Rustie at David? Magja-janitor ba? I realized may potential sila Rustie at David kaso hindi na cha-channel. Kaya dapat gamitin talento, para makapasok sila sa mainstream of society. Yung Dreams Arts ang naging vehicle for this project," says Rhyan.

Apart from involving them in his arts and crafts business called Dire-Husi, Rhyan also organized them as a pool of performers, according to their talents. Rustie and David act as human statues who perform for audiences in night markets and fairs. Some are fire dancers. Others engage in henna tattooing and quick sketching.

"Sa ganitong paraan, na-channel yung energy ng mga street kids from doing bad to worthwhile things. Higit sa lahat, nabigyan sila ng pagkakataon magbago at mawala ang tingin sa kanila bilang basura sa society," Rhyan says.

ASPIRING FOR BIGGER DREAMS

Through their Dire-Husi business which won the project grant from British Council, Rhyan hopes to fulfill bigger dreams for their group and other youths in Mindanao.

"We want to interconnect indigenous youth artisans to the urban youth fashionistas through our products. Gusto namin na mapatronize din ng mga kababayan natin ang mga katutubong produkto na tulad ng pagpatronize nila sa mga gawa sa ibang bansa," he explains.

He hopes to achieve this by targeting the youths in Manila particularly in high-end universities. Aside from having the money to spend, they can also start a new trend of tribal wear fashion by using their products.

"We want the youth to see the beauty of our native products which even has a meaning based on tribal beliefs. Hopefully, maging catalyst itong grant for the entry of Filipino tribal products into the mainstream market. So local artists in Mindanao can empower themselves and channel their energy from being bums to productive, useful citizens of the society and their communities," he says.

Seeing the transformation of these youths is the ultimate goal of the project, according to Rhyan.

"Ang payo ko sa mga kasama ko, start a new life. Baguhin nila mga pananaw nila sa buhay. What you sow is what you reap. Kung anong tinanim mo ngayon, yun din ang aanihin mo. Kaya kung gagawa ka ng kabutihan tiyak kabutihan din makukuha mo," says Rustie who someday aspires to become a lawyer.

In all these opportunities, Rhyan never fails to remind the people he took under his care, to keep their values intact and remain grounded. They may be enjoying all the attention they were deprived of, but they should never abuse it nor take for granted.

"Kahit magaling na sila magperform at nakikita sa TV, lagi ko sila pinaaalahanan. Lahat kami ay pantay-pantay. Yung kahinaan ko, kalakasan nila. Sama-sama kami sa isang barko at maglalayag patungo sa tagumpay," Rhyan concludes.

indigenous is hip

we are indigenous young people from mindanao.

we are proud of our roots.

we allow it to flourish within us.

we allow it to manifest in the things we do.

we wear the spirit.

we take passion in creating handcrafted accessories that say so much about who we are.

see their colors, their patterns, their designs.

if there's one thing we're rich at, it's creativity.

(and through our products, we want you to see our part of the world.)

we're not asking for your pity.

we want your friendship.

hey, we're doing business.

we make beautiful things that accomplish beautiful things.

we call that fair trade.