A Year of Gratitude: Our 2019 Journey

2019 was a year of building connections. 

It was a year of growth, of navigating the vastness of Lake Sebu, and of slowly sailing out into rivers that brought us to new places and connected us with different people. 

Early last year, Sesotunawa became ANTHILL's enterprise partner under their Community Enterprise Development Program. Since then, ANTHILL has been providing us with financial and material support; and mentoring us on business, marketing, and product development. They have also given us a wider platform to share our stories and showcase our artistry through pop-ups, trade fairs, and by helping us launch our own website. ANTHILL also introduced us to other great brands like Maaari and Saan Saan that allowed us to access a wider market locally and internationally.

We are also thankful to Global Shapers for allowing us to share our vision as a business with fellow SME’s and ArtEx for the opportunity to dialogue and work with artists outside our community. 

As a part of our mission to inspire the younger generation of Tboli to rekindle their love for their art and culture, we partnered with the Tboli Sbu Senior High School to share our journey from being artisans to entrepreneurs.

We were lucky to have the opportunity to engage with more people and widen our network through several bazaars in Davao City and Metro Manila, like the Mindanao Trade Expo and the NCCA National Arts and Crafts Fair. Through these venues, we were able to strengthen our capability building programs by mentoring our Tboli artists on product development and sales.

Because of these opportunities, we have also grown our social media audience from 700 to 1.4k Instagram followers and from 1.4k to 2.2k Facebook followers.

Our partnership with mentors, like Ms. Leah Vidal of Ateneo de Davao University's Anthropology Department, helped us clarify our vision as a community and as a brand; and helped us realize our goals and the steps we need take in order to increase our impact this year.

The journey was not easy, but it was insightful and empowering. The more we ventured out into different waters, the clearer our vision became, and the more we understood our purpose. We are thankful to the organizations, partners, and individuals who believed in us and who helped us grow our community into what it is today.

To navigating more rivers and to telling more stories in 2020! Bong Salamat for journeying with us!

--

Photos by ANTHILL and ArtEx.

Want to work with us? We thrive in collaborations and working together to constantly elevate the value of our handmade products. Contact us!