63 74 246 9968 cwearc@cwearc.org

Effective waste management through indigenous knowledge and appropriate technology

“If we are to study closely where the city’s generated waste come from, especially the nonbiodegradable, it is from the export processing zones and big business establishments.” Daisy Bagni of SAMAKANA and ORNUS. The City of Baguio faces a mammoth problem on how to manage its garbage. The city’s garbage is reaching 130 tons per day (Ramo, Northern Dispatch, 2008) and P20 million (US$479,628.00) is needed by the City for its material recovery facilities (Baguio Midland Courier, 2008). In 2008, the City Government has been spending P20 million (US$479,628.00) per month in hauling garbage to...

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Climate Change and Indigenous Women in Traditional Agricultural Communities in the Cordillera Region, Philippines

Introduction Indigenous communities are basically agricultural or peasant communities. An important indicator telling of change in an indigenous peasant women’s life is her family’s harvest or agricultural produce. In the phenomenon of climate change, an indigenous peasant woman would refer to a decrease to her family’s harvest to describe the environmental changes. Hence, it is important for every indigenous peasant woman to be keen of her family’s produce or harvest. This is a knowledge she learned from her long engagement of the land and the environment. Her tutors in agriculture...

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Using the Law to Assert Women’s and Children’s Rights: A Handbook of Philippine Legislation on Women and Children

Historically, women in the Philippines held high status in society. We were Babaylans and katalonans (priestesses) then, who were very much revered and involved in the political, economic and social spheres of life. We were also central in the affairs of the clan, in production and decision-making. If there were at all laws or codes to speak of during these times, we were definitely part of the process and the results. However, this status changed over time as we were influenced and controlled by Islamic laws and the colonial laws of Spain, America and even Japan. The making of laws was...

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Filipino Women Migrant Workers: Commodities for Export

Introduction The Philippines is the number one labor exporting country in the world today. As of 2004, there were approximately 8.2 million Filipinos scattered in 182 countries all over the world. An estimated 4,010 Filipino workers leave he country each in search for jobs and greener pastures abroad. In 2004, OFW remittances amounted to US15-16 billion (ILO Data, 2005), contributing almost half of the countries gross domestic product (GDP). The cordillera region has the third highest number of OFWs of all regions in the Philippines, of whom 77% are women. It is therefore not surprising that...

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A Women’s Anthology

Foreword The Cordillera Women's Education and Resource Center (CWERC) takes pride in announcing the birth of its first anthology of women's literary and visual arts through its journal KALI. The time is ripe for the unfolding and sharing of women's creativity and rich interpretation of the various facets of the people's struggle in the region, and the country in general. The wellspring of people's literature is the people's struggle itself. Through the years, the women's movement in the Cordillera has not only continuously developed and honed women activists. It has likewise created a...

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Women Workers and Labor Contractualization

Introduction Women workers are among the most hardworking and productive forces in Philippine society. They work for many hours on end, in factories, firms, service establishments or plantations, in order to produce commodities and services from which capitalists earn their profits. Yet they can be said to be among the most exploited, hardly earning enough for their own and their families' subsistence. They receive meager wages, usually below the legally mandated minimum wage, are often deprived of the benefits to which workers are entitled, and are denied their rights as workers to job...

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Saving the agno river

Introduction “KALI” is a local term of the indigenous kankana-ey people of the cordillera region, Philippines. It means to speak to talk. It also means to speak the dialect or language of the people. “KALI” now comes to you as the journal of the cordillera women’s education and resource center (CWERC), back after some years of relative silence. We offer this journal as a voice expressing the various concerns of women in the cordillera, in the Philippines, as well as in other part of the world. It aims to present in depth the effort of cordillera women to understand their situation and to...

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